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Issue 107 - October 25, 2000
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements (c) 2000
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Welcome to the 107th 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 October prize will be a copy of the book "HTML Goodies"
by Joe Burns. Recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
OPENING THOUGHTS
Not much new going on this week. I hope all is going well
for you.
Lastly, don't forget to recommend PCIN in the month of October.
You could win a copy of "HTML Goodies" by Joe Burns.
You can recommend PCIN at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
The NEWS
Details of MS/Corel Deal
I had this for you last week but forgot to include it.
There have been lots of news stories about the deal between
Microsoft and Corel. Most of this was brought because of
the SEC filing. The best report I have seen was from the
WinInfo Update newsletter. You can read the details at:
http://www.wininformant.com/display.asp?ID=2952
Songs Online
"There's a dagger in the heart of Cher's name on her
official Website. And she's hoping fans will plunge right
in.
The gothic-style rendering is a portal through which fans
must enter if they want to purchase her new album, Not Commercial--a
disc available exclusively on her Website starting November
8, and true to its name, it marks an interesting departure
for the ageless diva."
For more info:
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,7232,00.html
Adobe Site Hacked
"An attacker hijacked Adobe.com from its owner, Adobe
Systems Inc. Tuesday, disrupting the big software firm's
Web server and e-mail service for most of Wednesday.
Adobe Systems Vice President of Information Systems Gerrard
Rutter confirmed Thursday that an as-yet unidentified attacker
was able to perform an unauthorized modification of the
domain record for adobe.com."
This is not the first time that Network Solutions has allowed
an unauthorized person to change domain records. It certainly
doesn't reflect well on them.
For more info:
http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_489731,00.html
Celebrity Auctions
You used to be able to buy items on eBay that supposedly
were worn/used by certain celebrities. You never knew though
if it was legitimate or not. Well, eBay and Disney have
teamed up and you can now by all sorts of celebrity memorabilia
and other items at a special site.
I suspect there will be more partnerships like this as it
is a good way for the studios to clear out their warehouses
and still make some money.
For more info:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-3207964.html?tag=pt.xdrive.techdispatch..ne3207964
http://pages.ebay.disney.com/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 106-01)
We have installed Windows ME on a computer. We still
use some DOS programs that need some settings in the autoexec.bat
and config.sys files. But when I empty that files and
reboot Windows ME, the files are filled with standard
setting for Windows ME. How can I change the autoexec.bat
file, and empty the standard contents, without windows
ME changing this every time?
A 106-01)
Rob said, "I have no experience with that OS, but
can't you just add what you need to the autoexec and config
files? Or does it conflict with the other entries? If
you do add something and ME changes it, I would instinctively
look for some setting in the control panel. http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/
may be of interest.
Q 106-02)
When I open the Recycle Bin and while the bin seems to
be empty, when I hit the button to "empty" the
contents--it says it can't delete the 240 files because
it says that the file "DC122" is either write-protected,
full or currently in use. I found a way to see what's
in the bin--and it has many "DC files" and they
have many GIF files in them. My question: How can I delete
these 240 "invisible" files in my recycle bin?
A 106-02)
Thanks to all of those who sent in suggestions, but the
best one came from Rob who found an article at the Microsoft
Support site that explains very well how the Recycle Bin
works. Check it out at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q136/5/17.ASP
New 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?
Q 107-02)
Where can I get some good AOL help? Are there any good
sites or newsgroups that I can check out?
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
**Scheduled shutdown**
You can schedule Windows 98 and Windows Me to do a lot of
things by using the Scheduled Tasks utility that comes with
the operating system - but you can't make it shut down at
a certain time.
Unless, that is, you know a little trick.
This is a great trick for when you want to let the computer
finish a task, like burning a CD or backing up, but you
don't want to hang around waiting for it to be done so you
can manually turn it off.
In Windows 98 or Millennium Edition, click on the Start
button, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and Scheduled
Tasks. Double-click on Add Scheduled Task and then click
on Next. Browse in the Windows directory until you find
the file RUNDLL.EXE and select it.
In the next window, pick "One time only" and click
on Next. Choose the time you want to shut down and click
Next and then Finish.
But you're not finished yet.
Double-click on the task you've created and, in the window
that appears, change RUNDLL.EXE to c:\Windows\RUNDLL.EXE
user.exe,exitWindows (there's only one space in the command
- before user - and those are backslashes around the first
Windows). Click on OK and now your computer is ready to
shut down on schedule.
Some users may find that this trick works better if they
use RUNDLL32.EXE in the command instead of RUNDLL.EXE or
if they type \system\user,exitWindows instead of user.exe,exitWindows.
Useless Movie Quotes
Several weeks ago I included a link to the Daily Wave web
site. You could download short clips from various movies,
speeches, etc. well, the Useless Movie Quotes site has some
similar stuff, just no sound. You can visit http://members.tripod.com/umq/umqm.htm
and see the words to many "classic" movie lines.
Add Move To... and Copy To... to Right-Click Menu
I've seen lots of utilities that you can buy (or download
for free) that will add an option to your Context Menu (the
right-click pop-up menu). I thought there was something
tricky about this, but there is already something built
in Windows that you can activate. I read about this in the
latest Windows 2000 Magazine. It works in Windows
2000 SP1 and Windows 98 SE. You can download http://www.pcin.net/help/download/copy_to-move_to.zip
and extract the 2 REG files. You can double-click on them
to add them to your registry automatically, or you can use
Notepad to open them and see what's going on.
I don't know if it works in Windows 98 original or in any
of the Windows 95 versions.
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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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
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