Issue 108 - November 01, 2000

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
==== 1181 Subscribers in 48 Countries ====

Subscribe/Unsubscribe/View Archives at http://www.pcin.net/

Welcome to the 108th 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. The November prizes are copies of PowerQuest's Lost & Found. 10 copies will be given away, so recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

OPENING THOUGHTS

Another month has gone; another month is here, so look below for the November monthly contest.

Once this month has gone, I will need to renew my web site hosting plan. I am currently hosted on a Linux server. I am interested in a reliable, low-cost NT hosting package, which has mailing list capabilities. If any of you can recommend anything, contact me at mailto:editor@pcin.net

Congratulations to Jamie Crowther who recommended PCIN to his father near the beginning of October. Jamie was the random winner of HTML Goodies by Joe Burns.

For the month of November, I have a bunch of copies of PowerQuest's Lost & Found to give out. I will give out 10 copies in November to those who recommend PCIN. You'll have a great chance of winning, so recommend PCIN now at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

The NEWS

Top 10 Web Scams

"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Tuesday released details of its legal crackdown on numerous so-called 'dot-con' operations, along with its list of the top 10 global online scams after culling together thousands of consumer complaints through a database called Consumer Sentinel.
The FTC said its efforts have culminated a yearlong coordination with five U.S. agencies, consumer protection organizations from nine countries and 23 states, all of which resulted in 251 law enforcement actions against Internet swindles."

For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/10/31/ftc.web.scams/index.html

Pop Songs Cell Phone Rings

From the November 200 issue of mBusiness magazine, pg 10:
"Europeans get all the cool wireless options...
Nokia is teaming with EMI Publishing - which administers the music catalogs of Janet Jackson, the Spice Girls, and others - to offer inexpensive song downloads that can be used as cell phone rings, according to the Bloomberg news service. The service, expected to be available to members of the European 'Club Nokia' before the end of the year, would annoy theater audiences not just with one-note jangles, but with such toe-tapping jingles as, perhaps, 'When I Think of You,' 'Say You'll Be There,' and 'Miss You Much.'"

Napster Signs Deal

After fighting in the courts for so long (and they're still going at it), Napster has signed a deal with German media company Bertelsmann (they own BMG). A membership-based music service will be set up. "Napster will receive a loan from Bertelsmann -- but BMG won't drop its lawsuit against Napster until the company builds a working pay-for-music system. Bertelsmann will also post its catalog to the new Napster-built service; in addition, Bertelsmann has the option to purchase a portion of the San Mateo, Calif., company."

For more info:
http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/10/31/bertelsman_napster/index.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 107-01)

I have an icon in the Control Panel from a program I just uninstall, but the Control Panel icon is still there. How do I get rid of it?

A 107-01)

Rob said, "Did you use the program's uninstall or the one in Windows Control Panel Add/Remove programs? (Do they still call it that, I'm on Win95) If an entry for it is still is there Uninstall from there.
You can search for *.cpl files and delete the one you are sure is the offending program, but I wouldn't recommend that as a normal practice."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Hills said, "Search for all *.cpl files and select the one you wish to get rid of."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pat said, "Just do a search on your hard disk for *.cpl and you should find the file (usually located in C:\Windows\System) and delete it. You may want to leave it in your recycle bin for a few days to be safe."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony said, "This site is interesting: http://www.computingjapan.com/magazine/issues/1997/jan97/helpdesk.html I'll see if it works for WIN98."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe said, "To remove the icon applet from the control panel Click Start\Settings\Control Panel\Tweak UI. When Tweak UI opens click the Control Panel tab in Tweak UI. There you will find a list of the icon applets. Remove the check mark from the icon applet you want to remove then click OK."

Q 107-02)

Where can I get some good AOL help? Are there any good sites or newsgroups that I can check out?

A 107-02)

There were no answers sent in for this. I guess there isn't any good help for AOL.

New Questions

Q 108-01)

No matter how many times I reinstall or 'repair' it, I still get a message when using any of the programs in the suite that Office Assistant cannot be started. What am I doing wrong?

Q 108-02)

When opening Word I do not see any of the toolbars or menus at the top of the window, a bit like full screen view mode. Again, I've been driven to reinstalling it, but to no avail. Note that the program worked fine for several weeks and has only developed this behaviour recently. It is unusable as it is now!

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

**Heavy task, man **
Way back in the pre-Windows 95 world, there used to be something called the Task Manager, which let you select among current jobs you were running on your system and align their windows on your screen.
Guess what? It's still there, hidden in Windows 95, 98 and Millennium Edition.
To activate it, click on Start and Run, type taskman in the space and click on OK.
In the Tasks dialogue box are wide buttons for each current application. Click on them and choose commands from the menus to run the applications, minimize their windows or tile them. Hold down the Ctrl key as you click to select more than one.

Another Computer Help Site

You know... there are all sorts of great sites out there that offer a lot of help. Another site that has come to my attention lately is http://www.putergeek.com/ It isn't a very fancy site, but there are some interesting "white papers" as well as a newsletter with tips and tricks. It is all worth a look.

Niagara Falls Desktop Wallpaper

I live in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, but work in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada (only about 20 minutes away). Sometimes I take for granted that I see one of the Wonders of the World every day. So, a couple of weeks ago, Lisa picked my up from work and I took my Kodak DC280 digital camera and took some pictures. It was a beautiful day and the pictures look quite good. I have turned them all into BMPs that are 1024x768 (approx 2MB). I don't have any thumbnails yet, but if you are interested, you can download them from http://24.141.103.59/falls/ This is my home machine; so if you can't get through right away, try again later. I think the pictures are worth the download time.

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.

  1. If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, you may have to cut and paste.
  2. You can only win one contest every 30 days.
  3. To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit http://www.pcin.net/ and follow the appropriate links.
  4. Recommend PCIN to others at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml and be entered in a monthly draw.
  5. 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.
  6. 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. This publication may be reproduced in hole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.

PC Improvement News Home Page

PC Improvement News Archive