Issue 77 - March 29, 2000

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 77th 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 (March draw is for StarOffice 5.1) at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

OPENING THOUGHTS

Well, I'm all caught up on my emails, so now I just need to get going on the web site. Soon.

I got all sorts of answers for the I Need Help questions, both for last week and the week before (when no one had answered). For that reason, the I Need Help section is quite long this week. They are quite interesting though, with a wide variety of answers. I found the answers about the "shared file warning" interesting. Some people said they always delete them and never had any problems. Others said to never delete them. You can read the answers and decide for yourself. I have been considering only putting in a couple of answers, but then I thought that I'd leave them all in. Some weeks will be longer than others, but I know that different people learn by hearing things in a different way from me. Even though many of the answers will be the same, you may understand one person's explanation better than another's. If you don't want to read that section, just skip it.

I still have a couple of things left to sell. You can see the items at http://www.pcin.net/forsale.shtml

Remember that you have 2 days left to recommend PCIN and be entered into the March draw for StarOffice 5.1.  You can enter at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml

SMILEYS and ACRONYMS of the WEEK

:-D    Laughing
;-)    Winking
FWIW   For What It's Worth
NRN    No Reply Necessary

Get the WWW. Smileys & Acronyms book for the PCIN special price of $7.00 Cdn (around $5.00 US). You can only get this price by visiting http://www.pcin.net/help/books/reviewed/smileys.shtml

The NEWS

Cisco Tops Microsoft

For a long time now Microsoft has been the highest valued company. On Friday, its market value rose to over $573 billion, while Microsoft's was at $570 billion. I am just amazed when I look at those numbers. 2 companies have a combined value of over $1 trillion dollars!

For more info:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000324/tc/tech_cisco_8.html

Microsoft Trial Coming to an End

Speaking of Microsoft, one of the reasons why Cisco has passed them is that investors are cautious when buying Microsoft stocks because of the trial. The judge says he is ready to release his ruling, and is encouraging both sides to come to an agreement on their own.

For more info:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth606.htm
http://www.cnnfn.com/2000/03/24/technology/microsoft/
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,35206,00.html

In a related story, a poll done by Zogby International claims that 2/3 of respondents said the trial was a waste of taxpayer's money. That number goes up to 3/4 when asked if the government should appeal if they lose.

For more info:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/000328-000017.html

CDNow on the Ropes

Online music retailer, CDNow, is reportedly almost out of money. Their latest financial report says they have enough money to operate until September, but unless they get more financing, they may not be able to operate much longer after that.

For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1596353.html?tag=st.cn.1.lthdne
http://www.foxnews.com/vtech/032800/cisco.sml

Canada is Hacker Hotbed

According to the Department of Defence in the US, up to 80% of the cyber-attacks on US computers come through Canada. "Louis Freeh, director of the FBI, has called Canada a "hacker haven." FBI investigators believe one or more Canadian Internet servers were used in the recent attacks that disabled Yahoo.com, eBay and other U.S.-based sites."

For more info:
http://www.canoe.ca/TechNews0003/26_hacking.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 results to mailto:freehelp@pcin.net

Previous Question 1 (2 weeks ago)
Every time we empty out the trash bin we get the following error message: "Can not delete M_QDMRV5: Cannot find the specified file. Make sure you specify the correct path and filename." What's this?

Answers to Question 1 (2 weeks ago)
Robert Nelson, "Though I don't understand why the message is in the Recycle bin, the message itself refers to something that is used by the Windows system and so Windows is doing its utmost to keep itself intact."
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John Hills said, "I have been puzzling over this for a week and do not know the answer but I did wonder if creating that file so you can delete it would do the trick. I.e. Using notepad, create a file called M_QDMV5.txt and rename it to the extension you didn't mention (if there was one, if not rename thus). This newly created file needs to be stuffed in the directory where windows thought it was originally."
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Leeor Geva said, "M_QDMRV5 sounds like a temporary directory which Internet Explorer or Windows creates.  When you place files in the trash bin, they go to a temporary directory in your hard drive.  If you deleted that directory and then try to empty the trashcan, that sounds like an error you'll get.  Try emptying the trashcan without deleting the temp directory beforehand."

Previous Question 1 (Last week)
Over the years, I've had different error messages come up when I start Windows like "????.Vxd missing." There have been different vxd files missing. What are these and how do I fix this?

Answers to Question 1 (Last week)
Rob said, "These are virtual device drivers. If everything works once you're in Windows then its probably coming from an old line in autoexec.bat or system.ini - running 'sysedit' should open the relevant files. Sometimes when installing different hardware or uninstalling software you get extra listings in your system files that don't need to be there. So as long as everything works, the only course of action is to edit the files (make backups first). If you think the driver is something you need, or something's not working in Win - then you need to reinstall the driver...usually the specific name of the driver should give a clue (like eapci.vxd - its a driver for an ensoniq PCI soundcard)."
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Joe C said, "VxD (virtual device driver) A VxD acts as a buffer between applications and hardware. These virtual device drivers sort out the information to ensure that the correct application gets it. To fix the missing VxD's you will need to take note of which ones are missing and then reinstall them from the installation disks."
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Robert Nelson said, "Regarding the other question VxD's are virtual device drivers =very important and if not uninstalled properly can give the infamous Blue Screen error message at which point system may not load."
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Silvan Kuipers said, "VxD's are libraries of program code. They belong to one or more programs so if they are missing, it is understandable that the program or driver or whatever won't run. It could help to reinstall the program demanding the VXD."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "Let a professional help you with clearing these file names from your registry and sys.ini files. Remember to write down exactly what you changed in your registry and be absolutely sure you can place it back.  Usually they are MSN files, where you uninstalled it, or any other program which left the link in the registry to dead files."
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Aleksandar Mujadin said, "You probably have uninstalled some application that uses VxD's but it left them in registry, so every time you start Windows it will read the registry and try to load vxd files that don't exist. To fix it you would have to use regedit, search for the vxd files and delete the registry keys relating to them. If you don't know how to use regedit you might screw up your windows even more so be careful. The easy way would be to erase Windows and install again cause running it for a couple of years can get it pretty messed up."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve Black said, "This is usually when windows has either a section in win.ini or system.ini that has a 'call' to a particular file (vxd) which is virtual device driver.  This can cause by either you removing a peripheral without uninstalling it from the System properties.  Or Windows has failed to remove it properly.  All these VxD's live in the system folder of the windows folders. You can either remove it searching the win.ini or system.ini for what calls it or you could put the file in the said folder.  The usually problem is caused by Network adapters."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ray said, "These files are listed in either the Registry or the SYSTEM.INI file in the Windows folder, and indicate 'programs/modules' that should be loaded (and run) when the system starts. Normally this problem occurs when someone attempts to remove / uninstall a program, but simply removes the folders containing the folders instead of following the 'proper' uninstall routines (nowadays normally thru either Control Panel / Add/Remove Programs, or by using the Uninstall option setup when the program was installed.
To 'fix' the problem, you will need to determine where the entries are located - first look in the Windows/System.INI file - the entries may be listed in there under the [386Enh] section - for example, looking at my system, there is an entry for "device=pwrserve.vxd" - this would invoke the pwrserve.vxd module, ensuring that it is pre-loaded during boot-up. Alternatively, you can access the Registry - VERY CAREFULLY, of course. I normally find the 'rogue' entries using the Find facility to search for the name of the module - look at the context of the entry you have found, and delete the key. This is not for the faint-hearted - be careful, else you can cause all sorts of problems."

Previous Question 2 (2 weeks ago)
How do you turn off the warning message that Windows 98 gives you every time you enter the windows directory and windows\system directory?

Answers to Question 2 (2 weeks ago)
Rob said, "Well I don't have specific answer, this is one of the things I didn't like when I first saw Win98 (I stuck with Win95). Anyhow Windows is trying to be helpful so it probably doesn't have an "off switch". Although there's likely to be a registry hack that will take away the annoying warning. So you might try one of those 'Secrets of Win98' books, a Windows Usenet group, or Google - I did a quick search but didn't turn up your answer. But looking at one of the sites that did come up might help."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leeor Geva said, "The first time should be the last time you see that, but believe me it's a great warning message! I myself, a rookie, wished once I hadn't messed around with that part of my computer :-) Also look in Tools -> Folder Options menu when you reach that directory in Windows Explorer, you may be able to disable the message from there."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aleksandar Mujadin said, "OK, I will try to answer this but I'm not sure if I can. There should be a menu option in the Explorer, View - View as web page. If you click that away Windows will show everything like normal folders. I think you then need to close the explorer and open it up again. There is also an option called show like this folder or something similar. I don't remember since I'm running Windows 2000. If you click that all your folders will behave like the one you are in."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leif Gregory said, "If you want to get rid of that annoyance, then all you have to do is go into the Windows folder and rename/delete the folder.htt file. I renamed it just in the extreme case I might need it again. Once this is done, you'll have to move out of the Windows folder and go back into it to see the change."

Previous Question 2 (Last Week)
Whenever I un-install a program it will list the shared files and asked me if I want to delete them. Is it o.k to do so?  Or will it cause problems later on.

Answers to Question 2 (Last Week)
Kenneth Aspinwall said, "Windows can't always tell if a shared file is needed by other programs, therefore it's best to let them stay. These files are mostly DLLs and a safer way to find and remove unneeded DLLs is to use Soloway's free program called CLEAN SYSTEM DIRECTORY which can be downloaded from http://www.ozemail.com.au/~kevsol/sware.html#clnsys No files are deleted using this program but are moved into a temporary folder where they can be retrieved if needed."
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Rob said, "Is Windows telling you they are shared files, or an Uninstaller? Using software such as Norton Cleansweep will allow you to 'delete' them but keep a backup incase something fails. In general the files are *.dll and may or may not be actually used by other software. Without software such as Cleansweep then live like you wanna live - delete them if you don't like a cluttered HD and don't mind doing a reinstall of something if it breaks."
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Joe C said, "When uninstalling a program and you get a list of shared files and it asks you if you want to delete them or keep them the best thing to do is keep the shared files. Deleting a shared file may not cause a problem with another program but it is better to be safe than sorry by keeping the shared files. After uninstalling software I use a program called Clean System Directory which can be found at http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ksolway/ This program searches for orphaned DLL's and lets you remove them from the system directory to a backup directory that Clean System Directory creates during installation. Since a shared file is a DLL this program comes in handy. Note: Clean System Directory does not delete DLL's."
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Robert Nelson said, "Finally in most cases it depends on what the shared components are, if concerned leave them in. However a good uninstaller should be able to take out properly everything it installed. It is best to try to use Windows Add/remove for uninstallation."
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John Hills said, "I always go for the full Monty and haven't so far had problems.  If another program is using a particular file at the time you do an uninstall then the file cannot be deleted."
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Silvan Kuipers said, "A shared file is a file that is POSSIBLY being used (and is needed) by multiple programs. So, if you delete shared files and there still exist programs that depend on those files, the remaining program(s) might not function properly any more."
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Leeor Geva said, "Don't delete shared files, that usually means other programs are using that specific dll or file to operate."
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Carol Kay Cox said, "I have deleted many programs in the past, and I always delete all the shared files associated with the program. So far this has never caused any sort of problem."
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Aleksandar Mujadin said, "Every time you install a program and it tries to add file that already exists in the windows or windows\system dir it probably won't overwrite the old file unless it's a new version. But in the registry, the counter for the shared file is upped by one. When you uninstall a program the counter is reduced with one and the file isn't deleted until it reaches 0. Some messy installation program might not add to the counter so the file might be deleted even if other programs use it. If you are in doubt you might leave the file or write up the filename just in case something goes wrong so that you can restore the file. I myself never had any problems with any files missing after uninstallation."
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Steve Black said, "It is probably safer to keep shared files and indeed could be the cause of the error messages. It really depends upon how tight you are with Hard disk space. If in doubt, keep them."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simon Duffy said, "You should keep the shared files. Deleting them may stop another program responding."

New Questions
Q1) Soda pop was spilled on my keyboard and subsequently, the keys are stiff. Is there an easy way to clean it or am I out of luck?
Q2) I was looking around my computer and I saw a bunch of "class" files? How do I open them? Do I need them?

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

**Searchin', searchin'**
As mentioned in a recent Cheap Trick of the Week, you can narrow down your search in most search engines by using the title prefix. For instance, if you enter title:aardvark in search engines such as Yahoo, HotBot, AltaVista, InfoSeek and Excite, you'll get results that include only those with the word "aardvark" in their Web site title, such as "The Aardvark Page".
But now two more search tips are revealed.
You can also use the url prefix to select only sites that have the word in their URLs (Web site addresses). So url:aardvark will turn up results like www.souprecipes.com/aardvark.html
Or use the domain prefix to narrow your search to domains, such as .com, .org, .ca and so on. For example, a search on aardvark domain:.org  might turn up www.exoticpets.org/aardvark.html
In Yahoo, the title and url prefixes can be shortened to t and u, as in t:aardvark and u:aardvark.

You can get the Little Black Book of Cheap Tricks yourself for only $9.95 Cdn (about $7.00 US)
http://www.pcin.net/help/books/reviewed/cheaptricks.shtml
(Please mention that you heard about it from PCIN)

Last Week's Cheap Trick

Last week's cheap trick was explaining how to get rid of the Network Neighborhood icon. Subscriber Alig8or said, "It's much easier to use Tweak UI to remove the Network Neighborhood icon from your desktop than the registry hack you described. Simply uncheck it under the Desktop tab. It's still readily available to put it back if you get a second computer and decide to network them together, as I did."

The BioPassword - Part 2

Last week I mentioned a new program by Net Nanny called BioPassword that adds an extra layer of security with your passwords. Your typing habits (pauses, speed, etc.) become your "signature". John Hills emailed me and said, "I think I may have problems with this because first thing in the morning my fingers and brain do not work properly and last thing at night my eyes join in. My typing style depends exclusively on the time of day and my current, (normally deteriorating by the hour), condition." This is a good point John, and I'm not sure how the program would deal with this.
http://www.netnanny.com/
http://www.biopassword.com/

Networking Software

A while ago I reviewed the Microsoft Office alternative 602Pro Suite, by Software602. Well, the president of Software602, Premysl Pech, contacted me about another program called 602Pro LAN SUITE Lite. This program will allow you to hook 3 computers together to use the Internet simultaneously. It is compatible with any Internet connection, including xDSL, cable modems, and other high-speed connections. Use can use any POP3 mail client and any web browser. I don't have a network, so I can't test it, but I have had several people ask me how to get their networked computers to access the Internet.
You can read more about this at http://www.602pro.com/prolanlite/index.html If you decide to purchase it, it costs $49.95.

New Page in Word - Part 2

Last week I shared a tip that in Microsoft Word 2000, if you hold the CTRL key down and press enter, you automatically get a new page. Subscriber Gene Cote emailed me to let me know that, "after reading the paragraph in your latest newsletter, I tried it using Microsoft Word 97. It does the same thing, gets a new page." Thanks for checking it out Gene.

Office 2000 SR-1

The first service release for Office 2000 is available now from the OfficeUpdate site. I have tried to download it, but even on my cable connection, the download is unbelievably slow. If you plan on installing the patch, you may want to wait a while until the demand dies down. Of course, if you aren't having any problems with Office, then you probably don't need to install the patch.
On the other hand, Jesse Berst of ZDNet is warning us that the patch is causing problems. You can see what he has to say at:
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_4604.html?chkpt=zdhpnews02

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.

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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.

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