Dennis Faas

I'm going to break away from our regular genre of discussions held in the featured article section of the newsletter and take this opportunity to inform Readers of a few things happening with our web site. Issue #1: Problems receiving email The ... Netsky email virus is causing all sorts of havoc -- especially for our main server. Before delivering the newsletter to our Readers, I always send out a few test messages to my own email accounts to ensure that things are in proper order. Unfortunately, some of the test mailings never made it through the mail queue on our main server. Subsequently, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joan L. writes: " Hi Dennis! I really do enjoy reading all of your letters and find your newsletter very informative -- I have learnt a great deal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember seeing anything in your newsletter ... about printing envelopes on the PC? I usually type out the address in MS Word and then print out the envelope, but this is done using trial an error and I often waste a few envelopes along the way. I know you have many questions to answer, but I am sure other Readers are in the same boat as I am. Many thanks if you could point me in the right ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joel K. writes: " Dear Dennis, As a frequent sampler of all kinds of software offerings, I try them and if I like them, I keep them. If I don't like them, I delete them. The problem is that, a lot of the time, programs I remove ... from my system end up remaining in my Start Menu or as part of a right-click menu [I.E.: the Windows shell]. My question is: how do I remove these items? As far as I understand, the program has been removed from my system, so why do these objects remain on my system? " My Response: Excellent question. The answer is that (unfortunately) the ... (view more)

Recall -- Yesterday, Infopackets Reader Darren F. asked what term 'Windows Embedded' meant: " Dear Dennis, I was watching Tech TV recently, and there was reference made to a program that is capable of making a 'preinstalled environment' bootable ... Windows XP CD-ROM. I decided to do some research on the topic, and kept coming across discussion boards where people constantly made reference to something called 'Windows Embedded'. I don't quite understand what this is and was wondering if you could explain it the term? " I responded to Darren's question by querying Google for the term ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Patricia A. writes: " Dear Dennis, I really enjoy reading your newsletter, and was wondering if you can help me. I have so many Favorites (bookmarks) in my Internet Explorer that my list is getting out of control. Is there any way ... I can transfer them somewhere or clean up the list some how? " My response: Absolutely! To backup your favorites, you will have to transfer (export) them to a separate file so that you can store it / access it at a later time. Note that exporting your favorites will not remove them from your favorites list in Internet Explorer -- so you ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Darren F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I was watching Tech TV recently, and there was reference made to a program that is capable of making a 'preinstalled environment' bootable Windows XP CD-ROM. I decided to do some research on the ... topic, and kept coming across discussion boards where people constantly made reference to something called 'Windows Embedded'. I don't quite understand what this is and was wondering if you could explain it the term? " My response: From what I understand, the Windows Embedded technology automates the installation of Windows. Basically, this ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John B. writes: " Dear Dennis, In Windows XP, right-clicking on a photograph used to give me the option to send the image via email, or allow me to retain its original size using an image resizer button. For some reason, this ... dialogue box no longer appears when I place my mouse over top of images. I have not downloaded any other photograph programs so it is a mystery why this function no longer works. I have searched for a solution on Google without success, and would be very grateful for your expert advice in resolving this issue. " My response: What you are ... (view more)

Recall -- Last week, Infopackets Reader Justin S. asked if there was a way to make Windows Explorer remember the Most Recently Used (MRU) folder: " Every time I open windows explorer, the folder window displays the same directory. I always end up ... having to click on 'My computer', then navigate to C drive, then to Program files, then to the folder I finally need to get to. Is there any way to make Windows remember the folder I was recently visiting so that I don't have to go through this torment? " Unfortunately, I couldn't find any freeware programs capable of injecting MRU folders ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Beverley P. writes: " Dear Dennis, When I right click a folder, there are a number of options under the Send To heading. I would like to add some other applications into the Send To area, but am not sure how to do this? PS: I love ... your news letter! " My response: If you own Windows ME, 2000, or XP, the absolute easiest way to access the SendTo folder for the current user logged in is to: Click Start -> Run. Type in "sendto" (no quotes) and press Enter. An Explorer window will appear; simply drag and drop shortcut icons over and they will appear in the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ric J. writes: " Hi Dennis, I recently tried to install a new PCI modem card in my system. The modem is Plug and Play (PNP) and should automatically configure itself once the drivers are installed. Unfortunately, the modem won't ... properly install on my machine. I went into Device Manager and found that the modem assigned itself to COM1, which was already in use. So my question is: how do I change the COM port so that the modem won't conflict with COM1? " Side note: PCI stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect, or 'personal computer bus'. A COM port is short ... (view more)