Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Ed C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I look forward to read your newsletter each week. When I insert a disc in my CD ROM drive, it won't start automatic like it once did. In order to get it to work, I have to right click 'My Computer', ... then select 'CD-ROM' to get it to play. I'm running Windows XP. Is there any way around this?" My response: The feature you are referring to is called AutoStart, and can be enabled or disabled using Microsoft's free utility, called PowerToys (or 'TweakUI'). Take a look at this picture here which shows you exactly where the feature is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ken A. writes: " Dear Dennis, Whenever I try to run Scandisk (and Defrag), Scandisk gets 2/3 through the operation and reports an error message which reads: 'Not enough memory to continue. Close all programs to try again.' Even ... with all programs closed down still cannot run Scandisk. I have Windows 98SE (second edition). I hope you can help! PS: Love all newsletters -- they're great! " My response: Microsoft Knowledge Base article # 229154 states that this error may occur if your hard drive's cluster size is less than 8k. To correct this error, you will need to ... (view more)

Recall -- Last week, I wrote a review on WinGuides Registry Mechanic . Since then, a number of users have contacted me with Kudos and Questions in regard to the article. Infopackets Reader 'Marv MnM' writes: " Hi Dennis, I have been a subscriber to ... your newsletter for quite some time and have learned a lot from it. This time, I feel compelled to comment on your latest recommendation, Registry Mechanic . First, let me say that I'm not a techie nor a very advanced user, just a 73 year old who enjoys his computer and tries to keep it squeaky clean from viruses, spam, Spyware, and the like. ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ed M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I can't seem to run Disk Defrag, ScanDisk, or Norton Disk Doctor on my system because other programs are actively running in the background and keep interrupting the process. How can I find out what is ... running in the background and stop it? I have asked this question numerous times to Microsoft and they don't seem to know the answer. I have tried 'CTRL + ALT + DEL' on my keyboard to bring up the Windows Task Manager, I get a list of programs -- but I do not know which ones are safe to delete? Can you help? " My response: Many users ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Nancy E. writes: " Dear Dennis, I bought a router to make my computer less vulnerable to hackers, but now cannot receive files from my ICQ contacts. I can send files, but cannot receive. I talked with D-Link tech support and they ... helped me to change a few settings, but to no avail. They said that ICQ had to be changed in order to get this to work. I cannot get any help from ICQ except a 'form' reply from their site which doesn't help at all. I am using ICQ Pro, and the router is a D-Link DI-704P, and am running Windows 2000. As far as I understand it, one of the ' ... (view more)

Continuing on with our Feature Article on Registry Mechanic, here are some top Frequently Asked Questions about the Windows Registry, courtesy of WinGuides.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, and you'll ... (view more)

Does your computer seem slower than the first day you brought it home and plugged it in? Does it report strange error messages when launching program -- or worse yet, does it periodically display the infamous Blue Screen of Death? Typically, these ... symptoms are a result of a poorly configured or un-optimized System Registry . How the Windows Registry impacts system performance and stability Over time, programs are installed and uninstalled to Windows, and the Registry becomes bloated with incorrect and outdated information.(1) Many of the attributes contained in the Registry database point to ... (view more)

For reasons still unknown, the infopackets dedicated mail server suffered a catastrophic crash during a routine newsletter delivery (1.5 weeks ago) and was unable to boot back into the operating system. Unfortunately, the server's operating system ... reached 'end of life' about 2 months after it was put into service, and so it is quite plausible that the server was compromised due to an operating system exploit . The company which hosts the mail server for infopackets.com informed me that I would need to re-image (reformat) the mail server in order to bring it back to life. Since the original ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Margie100' writes: "Dear Dennis, You've probably have answered this question a million times, but I am having trouble finding the right answer for me. I am running XP and lately this PC just freezes up when I open just about ... everything. Pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL usually fixes it but I know that this is a temporary fix and it usually locks up again shortly after that. I've scanned my system for viruses, cleaned my hard drive using the defrag utility, and use scandisk to check for file-system errors. I know from your newsletters that it may be possible that there is ... (view more)