Issue 121 - January 31, 2001
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements ©2000
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Welcome to the 121st issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists
of news, tips, thoughts, and contests. There is something for everyone,
and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for
you. I am willing to discuss any computer topic. Email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net with any suggestions.
If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for
more!
Recommend PCIN to others and be entered in a monthly draw. Recommend
PCIN in January and win a copy of the book "The Unauthorized Guide
to Windows ME" by Paul McFedries. The more you recommend PCIN the
more chance you have to win. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
Thanks to all who have asked about our move. It went well and we love
being here. We are officially out of our old place now. We just got the
cable hooked up on Saturday, so I was without Internet access at home
for a week. That was not fun! I don't sit at my computer a whole lot,
but it sure is nice to have that connection available on demand.
The DNS records have been updated for the GAWing.com domain where I have
all of the desktop wallpaper. You can view the autumn and winter Niagara
Falls wallpaper at http://www.gawing.com/falls
Don't forget about the PCIN summer BBQ that will probably be happening
in the summer. If you live close enough to come to a summer BBQ or something
like that, then please email me to let me know that you are interested.
For those people interested, I'd also like to hear what you'd be interested
in doing/discussing/seeing while hear. Email me at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Lastly, today is your last chance to recommend PCIN in the month of January
and have a chance to win a copy of the book "The Unauthorized Guide
to Windows ME" by Paul McFedries. Recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
The NEWS
Napster to Charge for Access
"Napster, the controversial but popular music file-sharing Web
site, will start charging users a membership fee later this year, the
head of Bertelsmann, Napster's parent company, said Monday.
"We have an idea of the price range but it is too early to publicize
it," Bertelsmann chief executive Thomas Middelhoff told journalists
on the fringes of the World Economic Forum held in this Swiss resort
town.
The California-based Web site has allowed some 44 million users to easily
pass along digital music files, most of which have been copied from
CDs. Music companies however have sued the site for copyright infringement.
Middelhoff expressed confidence a membership fee would not deter users
of Napster's controversial site."
For more info:
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/0,1643,500304557-500487943-503379107-0,00.html
Virtual Reality Retailing
From the January 15, 2001 issue of InformationWeek magazine, pg 17:
"Manhattan retailer Hugo Boss' new sales associate, Cameron, is
good looking, intelligent, friendly - and guaranteed never to ask for
a raise. Create by Virtual Characters, he's the first 3-D "digital
model" of its type, a form of hologram. Cameron is projected into
free air and activated to inform shoppers of new products or sales.
Virtual Characters senior VP Elliot Nathan says characters such as Cameron
eventually will be able to interact with customers.
By Eileen Colkin"
Troubled Go.com to Stop
"Walt Disney said Monday that it will discontinue operations of
its troubled Go.com Web portal, becoming the latest big media company
to fold its Internet efforts back into core TV businesses.
Go.com's entire work force, about 400 employees, has been laid off with
the closure, said Disney spokeswoman Susan Murdy. The layoffs will shut
down the portal's Sunnyvale, Calif., office, where the majority of its
employees were based. The laid-off employees were given severance packages
that included 60 calendar days of pay and benefits, according to one
source.
In addition, Infoseek, a search engine in which Disney acquired a controlling
interest in 1998, will likely disappear if the company can sell its
technology to a third party, Murdy said. The company may also sell the
site's traffic, giving the rights to redirect people who visit Infoseek
to another Web site, she added."
For more info:
http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/01/29/technology/disney_go/
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-4637253.html
I NEED HELP
I offer a free help service via email. If you have a question, you can
email me and I will try my best to answer them. I can answer about most
of them, but there are things that I have never tried or experienced so
I don't have an answer. I post those questions here and see if any of
the readers have any suggestions. I will include all reasonable suggestions
with credit to you.
These are NOT my own questions and they are NOT my answers. I will NOT
check the validity of these comments. That is up to you. If you do try
one of these tips, please let me know how the suggestions worked out.
Did they work or not? Please send in your questions or results to mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
Previous Questions
Q 120-01
I checked the "Send E-Mail using plain text only" box in
two addresses in my address book but if I click on a link to either
of them in an e-mail then it still sends HTML messages. I have to
manually change it for each message. Is there a way to change this?
(Using Outlook Express 5)
A 120-01
** said, "In Outlook Express go to click the menu tools, then
options (down the bottom ). In the new window select the 'send' tab,
down the bottom you will be able to choose to send _all_ emails as
text. My personal choice as it does the same job faster."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "Answer: Tools -> Options -> "Send"
Tab choose Plain Text as default."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "If you send a new email to these contacts then
it should go in plain text. If you are replying to an email you have
received your settings are set up to reply in the format of the message
you received and if it arrived in HTML then that's what it will go
out at. Problem may be solved by copying your body text and creating
a new email rather than replying or forwarding."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neil McMullen said, "Check Tools-Options-Send and make sure "Reply
to messages using the format in which they were sent" is unchecked."
Q 120-02
I have recently acquired a pc and wish to dump everything on it and
fdisk it and reload win 98 on, but it does not boot the 'A' drive
first. And I can't get in to the bios as it is password protected
to change the bootable drive, is there a command I can enter to get
it to read the start up disk, when I need to use the start up disk.
Any suggestions?
A 120-02)
Thanks to John Reeves, Rob, Tony Lowell, Jon, John Hills, Leeor,
**, Varden Morris, Joe Atkinson, Simon Duffy, John Patmore, and Joe
who all suggested that you either pull out the battery or find jumpers
on the mother board to reset the password (I had 4 printed pages of
responses that all said this).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kenneth Aspinwall suggest getting help at http://sysopt.earthweb.com/cmospass.html
New Questions
Q 121-01
I purchased some CDRWs. The problem with them is that if I put them
in any computer that has a CDRW or DVD, they cause the cd drive to
get an afl.vxd error. If I turn off auto run and format the disk then
this doesn't happen. I scanned the disk for viruses and nothing showed
up. If anyone could explain what has happened I would really appreciate
it. I had a really difficult time with this. I tried reinstalling
the disk drives and everything finally I figured out how to get the
drives working again. I would really like avoiding having this happen
again. I thought it was a problem with my computer but I gave some
people some disk that have never been in my computer and they ended
up having the same problem. I was not very popular for a while.....lol.
I would really like to avoid having this happen again.
Q 121-02
I have a problem with Outlook Express. All settings are as they should
be and font size is set to 10 points. I have uninstalled Outlook Express
and reinstalled it to make sure that default settings are set.
The problem is that the first character typed comes out as it should
in 10 point. But the moment the second character is typed it changes
to 12 point. In fact, just a space will cause the 10 point to visibly
click over to 12.
Pulling my hair out on this one.
If you have an answer to these questions or have a question of your own,
please email me at mailto:freehelp@pcin.net
THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF
Cheap Trick of the Week
**My Logo**
Are you tired of seeing that spinning globe in the corner of Internet
Explorer? You can change it to a graphic you'll be happier with. This
can be a picture you create yourself using Paint or another program
- or you can use a file you may already have.
The key here is to make sure your graphic is 26 pixels high by 26 pixels
wide. You may even want to put a little picture of your face up there,
or your loved one, be it human or animal. Save the graphic as a bitmap
file (with the .bmp extension) and remember where you saved it.
To make this graphic your new IE logo, you have to tweak the Windows
Registry. If you're not familiar with this process, check out the instructions
and precautions at www.WE-Compute.com/registry.html.
In the Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Toolbar. Select Toolbar, right click on it and select New and
String Value. When the new value is created in the right pane, rename
it SmBrandBitmap and double-click on it. Under Value Data type the full
path to the graphic that you saved and click OK. Exit the Registry Editor
and restart your computer. The next time you start Internet Explorer
you should have a new logo to enjoy.
Your graphic will not spin like the globe but that may be a good thing
for many people. However, it is possible to replace the logo with an
animated bitmap graphic too if you know how to create such an image.
You can find such images on the Internet at freeware and shareware sites.
Windows 98 Knowledgebase
I have the book "Que's Using The Microsoft Windows 98 Registry"
and it comes with a CD. The CD has an HTML-based knowledgebase that
covers Windows 98 installation, system management, networking, optimization,
and more. I've copied the directory to my home computer site and you
might want to check it out at http://www.gawing.com/win98kb
Remember that this is coming from my home computer (through my cable
connection), so at times it can be quite fast, and at times it can be
quite slow.
Command Line Switches for Defrag
A couple of weeks ago someone asked how often you should run Defrag.
There were many responses with many opinions. Subscriber Brian sent
me this:
"If you're using Win95 then there are switches to pass on command
line for defrag:
/a - All local non-removable drives
/f - full (files and free space)
/noprompt - start and quit automatically
These are useful if you want to schedule a defrag task or have a shortcut
you can just click on then walk away from your computer."
DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF
PCIN is brought to you by PC Improvements. The opinions expressed are
those of the editor, Graham Wing. PC Improvements and Graham Wing accept
no responsibility for the results obtained from trying the tips in this
newsletter.
- If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, you may have
to cut and paste.
- You can only win one contest every 30 days.
- To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit http://www.pcin.net/
and follow the appropriate links.
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and be entered in a monthly draw.
- There are only 2 ways to get on the subscriber list. You have either
been subscribed by filling out a subscription form on any of the pages
on my site, or you have requested FreeHelp from me in the past.
- If you have a web site or run your own newsletter, please email me
at mailto:editor@pcin.net and I
will add it to the subscriber web pages that I have on my site.
Graham Wing can be reached at mailto:editor@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2000, PC Improvements and Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
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