Dennis Faas

Not long ago, I received an email from 'Rezzy46', who has been plagued by a new form of spam: Windows Messenger popup advertisements (note: these are not MSN Messenger chat pop-up messages). He writes: " Is there a simple way to stop those messenger ... service advertisements? Is it possible to disable the popups without disabling any core Windows components? Speak of the devil -- two just popped up while I was typing this message! " After searching Google, I found that Messenger popups are a new form of spam that exploit a feature of the Microsoft Windows operating system intended for ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Walt H. asks: " Is it possible to create an image [backup] of your hard drive to an external USB hard drive? If so, what limits are there in creating the image and restoring it? I can't add another hard drive to my laptop, plus I ... thought a portable USB drive could allow me to image more than one computer. " Side note: USB is short from for Universal Serial Bus. It's a small port usually located at the back of your computer and is pretty much the standard connection used for external computer peripherals today (such scanner, mouse, keyboard, printer, etc). My ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Reza M. asks, " Can you tell me, how I can update my computer's main board BIOS? " My Response: Flashing a BIOS simply means to update the BIOS. A BIOS is a computer chip which contains simple instructions required for operation ... particular to a device. Since not all main boards are the same, the steps taken for flashing a motherboard BIOS can only be generalized. I will attempt to explain the procedure, but must first advise: do not flash your BIOS unless you absolutely need to (IE: an update is required to have the device function properly). The reasoning for ... (view more)

A few days ago, Ramnik S. asked how to alphabetically sort favorites (web page bookmarks) using Internet Explorer: " Hi Dennis! I thoroughly enjoy your newsletter. I find it informative and, even more importantly, fun to read! I have one question ... regarding the Favorites in Internet Explorer. Over time, as I keep on adding new favorites, the list of favorites no longer remains in alphabetical order. Under 'Organize Favorites', other than manually moving each address, there does not seem to be a way of automatically getting the list in alphabetical order. Is there a simple way to do this ... (view more)

Today's Feature Article about Sorting Favorites in Internet Explorer spurred some further thoughts about organization. I decided to write a separate "how to" article in this section of the newsletter because the two topics -- although slightly ... related -- deserve separate space. Cleaning up items: using Explorer instead of the Organize Favorites option I mentioned earlier that there is an option in the Favorites Menu which allows for the manual manipulation of bookmarks. The Organize Favorites option houses 4 basic operations: Create Folder, Rename, Delete, and Move to Folder. ... (view more)

Last week, Dee N. had a question concerning the Internet Explorer download-dialogue box: " On the download Window, there is an option for 'Always ask before opening this type of file'. Well, I accidentally Unchecked this option -- and now, all my ... .ZIP files open automatically after each download completes! How can I turn this option back on? " My Response: I didn't know the answer to this question, so I asked Infopackets Readers for help. Mike K. [and about 40 other readers] informed me that the 'Always ask before opening ... ' option for .ZIP files can be resolved through modifying ... (view more)

Over the weekend, Lanny B. indirectly asked me a question about how to span an archive using WinBackup : " Hi Dennis! As always, love your newsletter! Keep up the good work. I'm writing today about WinBackup . It seems that the program currently ... does not support my CD-R/W burner (LITE-ON LTR-24102B). Whenever I try to run a backup and record to the burner, all I get is an error message which states that my 'CD-R/W drive is not supported.' There is no mention if / or when WinBackup will support the writer in the future. What can I do? " Recall -- WinBackup is a simple-to-use backup ... (view more)

This article is a bit technical and relies on know-how from a previous article I've written about RAID. In brief, the word 'RAID' is a techy-term which stands for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks. A hard disk array is simply a ... bunch of hard drives chained together. Benefits of using RAID are generally two-fold, and include: increased file read / write performance (known as RAID-0), and data redundancy for backup purposes (known as RAID-1). I've previously written an article about RAID if you would like to read up on it . It is very simplistic and explains RAID essentials ... (view more)

When a download link is clicked using Internet Explorer, a Window normally pops up asking where to save the file. Dee N. recently wrote me a very interesting question concerning the download-dialogue box: " On the download Window, there is an option ... for 'Always ask before opening this type of file'. Well, I accidentally Unchecked this option for my .ZIP files -- thinking that I wouldn't be prompted this Window any more and it would save automatically to my computer -- but, now it opens every single .ZIP file I download! Do you know how I can have Windows prompt me to save my files again ... (view more)

Not long ago, Barry M. from Africa sent me this email: " First off, thanks for all the great info! You've helped me come a long way with my PC confidence and knowledge. Much appreciated! I am running Windows XP Professional. The multiple user ... profile feature of XP is really handy, but I don't want to have separate email accounts in my Outlook Express. If it is possible, I would like all users to access the same information from their XP login accounts. At the moment, if I receive e-mails into my inbox while logged on under my profile, then those e-mails won't be visible to the next user ... (view more)