Dennis Faas

Continued from Choosing a Backup Solution: An In Depth Look . As I outlined in my previous article, there are many backup solutions available -- but few that are designed to meet the requirements of virtually every computer user. Therefore, it's ... important to establish your backup strategy ahead of time before choosing the backup solution that is right for you. Whether it's a short term or long term solution, and for home or office use -- here are 6 key elements you can use in formulating your own Backup Strategy: 1. Determine the Frequency of your Backups Most (but not all) backup solutions ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bernie B. 'kennel king' writes: " Dear Dennis, You last featured my program, FileMap by BB, in your newsletter of January 2004. FileMap by Bernie Madigan I just wanted to pass on a quick note to let you know that I've just ... released version 4.03 of FileMap. It now displays System Registry 'run keys' since Trojan programs need to be constantly running in order to achieve any rational objective. My purpose in the update was to allow users to monitor 'run keys' which are a dead give-away for any rogue programs [Spyware, Trojans, etc] downloaded from the Internet. Rather ... (view more)

The next few feature articles of our newsletter will spotlight 4 editorials written by Kevin J. Vella of UniBlue, and provides an interesting and in-depth view of choosing a backup solution. -- It was Sunday, the 23rd of November 2003 at 4 PM, and I ... was in my final months of Graduate Business School. Two chapters of my research project were stashed on my hard drive -- no hard copies, just bits and bytes of hard work compiled over the last three months. I was punching away at my keyboard -- when all of a sudden, my notebook slowed dramatically. I started closing down open applications in hopes ... (view more)

Continuing on with our Feature Article on Registry Mechanic, here are some top Frequently Asked Questions about the Windows Registry, courtesy of PCTools.com: Q: " Do I really need to fix registry problems? " A: In short, yes. If you don't fix ... registry problems when they arise or try and prevent them from even happening at all, then you may soon find yourself faced with sudden crashes, system stalls, or a severe degradation in operating speed. Working to fix registry issues and prevent system crashes should be a top priority whether you use your computer for business or pleasure, ... (view more)

Great news! PCTools, the authors of the incredibly popular flagship utility 'Registry Mechanic', have just recently released version 4.0. If you've been keeping up with our newsletter, you've undoubtedly heard me mention this extremely beneficial ... utility a number of times in the past. Reminder: What is Registry Mechanic? Registry Mechanic is by far the most widely regarded Windows Registry Cleaner on the Internet -- not only because it's received countless rave reviews from credible online sources, but also because it is one of the few Registry cleaners on the market that actually delivers ... (view more)

Commenting on yesterday's article concerning How to track down and report a Hacker , Infopackets Reader Robert M. writes: " I read yesterday's article with great interest; however, I noticed that you did not really define the different types of ... Hackers that are out there. I'd like to briefly comment on that, with some definitions I've come across. Hacker: While there are *many* different definitions of the term 'Hacker', Google's #1 answer reads, "[Hacker]: a slang term for a computer enthusiast. Among professional programmers, the term hacker implies an amateur or a programmer who ... (view more)

Happy Birthday to me! Today, I turn 30. Special thanks to those folks who noted my Birthday pre-announcement in the "today in History" section in Yesterday's newsletter. And now getting on with today's question, Infopackets Reader Roberta W. writes: ... " Dear Dennis, I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to report a hacker that has been trying to hack in to my computer. I have 3 firewalls and plenty of antivirus software installed on my computer. I keep getting messages that dav.bay0.hotmail.com is 'sniffing' my communication ports, and is attempting to send me ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Frank K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've taken all of my photos and scanned them into the computer. I later decided to record the photos to CD so that I could archive them permanently and view them at my leisure. A friend of mine told ... me that my home DVD player can also play image files, much like a 'photo CD'. The problem is that the photo CD that I made only plays some of the image files. Can you tell me why this is so, and how I can go about correcting the problem? " My response: Most DVD players can play only play .JPG (or 'JPEG') image files. Image files come in ... (view more)

Recall - - Last week I talked about a utility called ISOBuster, which is able to retrieve data from stubborn DVD and CDs. Unfortunately I wasn't 100% correct when I reported that ISOBuster is freeware. To better explain ISOBuster's 'freeware' ... functionality, the author of ISOBuster (Peter Van Hove) emailed me the following message: " Dear Dennis, I saw in today's newsletter that you mentioned ISOBuster which is GREAT! And you're right, ISOBuster is ideal for data recovery from CD and DVD -- especially for getting data back from CDs created with DirectCD, Drag 2 Disc, InCD, DLA and other ... (view more)