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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.
- Recommend PCIN to others at http://www.pcin.net/recommend.shtml
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.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part,
as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented
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