Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Bruce W. writes: " I enjoy your newsletter very much and I also have a question. I read with interest your last article on Registry Backup and DLL Hell . In the past, I've found programs on the Internet that I'd really like to ... have (regardless of free or paid) and I've downloaded them to my computer. My question is: sometimes I download a program and it tells me something to the effect 'unable to locate DLL library: installation failure.' Why does this happen with some programs but not others? It's frustrating! " My response: The error message you received isn't ... (view more)

Email viruses and unsolicited messages are a huge pain in the neck. It's bad enough that I receive about 50~100 bogus messages a day, but it's even worse when an email worm hits the 'net. The last virus to hit my Inbox was the SoBig email worm back ... in late August of this year, and it caused major havoc: at one point, I had over 2,000 bogus emails waiting to be downloaded to my Inbox in less than 1.5 days. You may recall that on August 28, I wrote an article on coping with unsolicited messages and email viruses. SoBig Email Worm Virus, Part 2 At the end of this article, I mentioned that the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader David R. writes: " Hi Dennis! A while back, I was playing around with a program and my drive letters somehow got re-assigned. My CD ROM drive (D) became E, and E became F. I am trying to put in a Video input card ... and every ... time I try to do the driver install, the PC says it cannot access drive D. Since Drive D became Drive E, there is no disk in D and thus installation cannot be performed. Is there a way I can reassign the Drive letters or reassign the default CD Rom? I posted this message on the message board at Tech TV and here is the response that I got: ' Do ... (view more)

Today, Anne from Canada told me of a very strange situation with her computer. She writes: " Hi Dennis! I have a question. Sometimes there is an image under the email page, or Internet page, and it has a small eye with a white box and a red X in it. ... It annoys me, and I try to get rid of it, but nothing works. Could this be some sort of Spy, because that's what it reminds me of. It's not always there for long, and then disappears. Any ideas? " My Response: All I can say is: "that's weird!", and maybe you've got some type of Spyware installed on your system? I've never heard ... (view more)

Scorpian548 writes: " I read your review on Window Washer (Gazette, 20030715). Can it also clean Real One Player & Quick Time Player? " My response: Some of you may have missed the review on Window Washer in the Gazette on July 15th. To recap: " ... With web browsers and other applications constantly recording personal tidbits of information -- such as documents and pictures you've viewed, plus web sites recently visited -- maintaining privacy while using your PC can be a daunting task. Webroot's award-winning Window Washer is a comprehensive, simple-to-use utility which ... (view more)

With respect to yesterday's feature article, "SiS KHooker, DownloadWare, and Video Display Trouble?" (Gazette, 20030917), Sarah M. writes: " Dennis, I did some research on my own and found that SiS KHooker.exe is not a homepage hijacker (as far as I ... know). Here is the info on that from the answersthatwork.com task list [URL not given]: ' Khooker (KHooker.exe by Silicon Integrated Systems – SiS): Description: SiS Keyboard Daemon. System Tray utility which gets installed by the drivers of the latter day SiS VGA cards. The utility itself is not of much use in our opinion and may ...<a href="/news/9209/sis-khooker-downloadware-and-video-display-trouble-part-2" class="more-link">view more

Recall -- Last week, Chris L. asked if it was possible to print out the filenames of all his music files which were stored in a single folder on his computer. I suggested using a DOS command to do the trick, and also asked Infopackets Readers for an ... alternate freeware solution. Print Music Filenames? Many users recommended KarenWare's "Directory Printer". From the web site: " No more fumbling with My Computer or Windows Explorer, wishing you could print information about all your files. Karen's Directory Printer can print the name of every file on a drive, along with the file's ... (view more)

I received some alarming email from my Internet Service Provider (ISP) today and thought I would pass along the word. There has been a major security threat issued for all users of Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, XP and Server 2003 (RE: Knowledge Base ... Article #824146). All of those who are affected need to download a patch immediately in order to resolve this breach. In short, "A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise a computer running Microsoft Windows and gain complete control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing an ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Dorothy L. writes: " Hi Dennis, I am very interested in the PopUp Stopper Professional program, but would first like to ask you a question regarding some despicable emails I've recently been receiving. I am a senior citizen and a ... grandmother, and would like to eliminate male-oriented offers before I turn 81. Is this possible to do? I have been a long-time subscriber to Smart Computing and the earlier PC Novice... I wish I had known about you earlier! I just happened upon it. Terrific stuff!!" Dorothy emailed me again today: " In checking my e-mail this a.m., ... (view more)