Dennis Faas

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Over time, programs are installed and uninstalled to Windows, and the Registry becomes bloated with incorrect and outdated information.(1) Many of the attributes contained in the Registry database point to ...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)

Over the last 2 weeks, Microsoft has issued a number of patches related to exploits recently discovered in Internet Explorer. Today, I received 2 additional notifications: one of them listed as critical and, if not applied immediately, may allow ... "remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a malicious website or JOB file." (Source: cve.mitre.org ) Yikes! This section of the Gazette is normally dedicated to answering questions I receive from Readers between the time that newsletters are sent out; however, this time, I feel it is imperative to inform Readers of the importance of ... (view more)

With the summer holiday season in full swing, many of us are snapping photos with our digital cameras to remember those special moments. Unfortunately, most software packages that come standard with our beloved cameras make it difficult to organize ... photos into meaningful presentations, let alone share them with friends and family. Introducing InAlbum: a feature-packed photo organizer InAlbum is an easy-to-use picture organizer that turns ordinairy digital photos into stunning theme-based photo albums, chalk-full of animations, clipart, and sound. Presentations can be shared online the web, ... (view more)

Recall -- Last newsletter, Infopackets Reader Frank C. asked if there was a way to make a web page 'fit' properly on a page when printed: " I enjoy reading your newsletter very much. Whenever I find a particularly interesting topic, I like to make a ... hardcopy for later reference. Unfortunately, some of the information on the web page gets cut off when my printer goes to print the page (this also happens to me with other web sites). Is there a way I get around this problem? " I suggested 2 methods using Internet Explorer (adjusting margins and printing in Portrait mode, or try ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Tom' asks: " Somewhere, someone told me about a website that allowed users to download a windows 98 Second Edition full CD that included all the critical updates. I also heard that you needed to use the original CD key to use ... this install. Do you happen to know if this is true, and if so, what is the web site? " My response: As far as I understand, it would be illegal to distribute any Microsoft product that is normally for sale (I.E.: the Windows Operating System itself -- Service Packs , on the other hand, are free). On that note, I happened to stumble across ... (view more)

Have you ever wanted to print a web page, only to find out that part of the page is cut off at the right margin? Infopackets Reader Frank C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I enjoy reading your newsletter very much. Whenever I find a particularly interesting ... topic, I like to make a hardcopy for later reference. Unfortunately, some of the information on the web page gets cut off when my printer goes to print the page (this also happens to me with other web sites). Is there a way I get around this problem?" My response: There are 2 options I can think of off the top of my head (using Internet ... (view more)

Last Friday's article touched upon the importance of backing up an entire computer system (including Windows itself). As you may recall, disk imaging is mentioned frequently in this newsletter, as it is an important part of 'disaster recovery' ... planning. Over the weekend, I received a number of comments and questions from Readers: many of which referenced the fundamentals of disk imaging. Since the questions were similar in nature -- and because disk imaging is such an essential topic -- I have decided to repost an article which illustrates the basics of disk imaging versus 'regular file ... (view more)