Dennis Faas

Today I received very disheartening email. Al G. writes: " Why has my subscription to the Infopackets Gazette newsletter suddenly ceased? " I decided to check the subscriber base, and found Al's email address still in the list. I know that most of ... the newsletters have been successfully delivered because the web statistics reflect normal activity. So, why wasn't the newsletter getting delivered to Al? The only logical explanation I could think of -- other than Al's mailbox being over-quota -- was that his Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be incorrectly blocking this newsletter due ... (view more)

Cinnamon asked me a very good question over the weekend: " Hi Dennis! In an attempt to clean out old and/or unnecessary files, I accessed my Winzip files. In scanning through the list and opening (or attempting to) open them to find out what they ... belong to, I find it just a bit mind-boggling. It's very hard to tell what some of them are. Is there a guide one can use in attempting to delete some or all of them? I'm afraid I'll remove something that I need! Thanks, and keep up the great work! " My Response: Zip files are archived files and usually contain many files. Chances are you ... (view more)

Yesterday , I detailed instructions on how to export / import contact information from the Address Book. Essentially, this allows users to make a copy of their address book: either for backup purposes, or to import contacts onto another computer. ... The instructions I gave were done using Windows XP (Service Pack 1) with Internet Explorer / Outlook Express 6. Today, I received email from two users who claim to have similar problems with the Address Book program. John L. writes: " I followed your instructions but the import and export options would not highlight. Is it because I'm using ... (view more)

In the last 3 newsletters , I've been talking about the importance of archiving programs: specifically, WinRAR, WinZIP, and WinACE. Unfortunately, neither of these popular software titles are freeware, which is why I asked Infopackets Readers to ... send me their favorite alternate picks. Ionut C. wasn't alone when he recommended ZipGenius: " ZipGenius is a zip tool suite that offers a variety of features. It offers ... drag and drop and features and an 'intelligent' wizard to get you started. Among other things, ZipGenius offers 5 different compression levels, full customization and ... (view more)

Roberta C. asks: " Could you tell me if there is a way to copy my contacts in Outlook and load them onto another computer? " My Response:I remember reading this question before, so I decided to search previous newsletters for the answer. Low and ... behold -- I found the answer in January 01, 2002's issue of the Gazette ! Jayne T. writes: " [All you need to do is send] the contents to floppy disk [or hard drive] via the export facility in the address book and you can do the reverse with the import facility of the address book on the new machine. " I decided to try it my own ... (view more)

Yesterday's newsletter was a real whopper; I must have spent over 6 hours writing it. Incase you missed it, yesterday's article was about WinRAR, WinZIP, and WinACE. I briefly overviewed how archiving software can be used to compress multiple files ... into a single large file, and then split (if necessary) into pieces to be stored on smaller-sized media for backup purposes. The truth is, knowing how to extract (or compress) an archived file is essential, especially in today's world of online computing. WinRAR, WinZIP, and WinACE are not freeware, which is why I asked Infopackets Readers to send ... (view more)

Last week, Rose J. asked how she could to back up the "How to Install / Reinstall Windows" video tutorial and eBook on floppy disk: " I need to [copy your] video on to a [floppy] disk, and I can't seem to do that. Can you explain the procedure in ... detail? " I mentioned in the previous newsletter that this would be a time-consuming task and that backing up files to a floppy disk is generally not a good idea. In brief, here are a few reasons why: 14 floppies would be required to complete the task, since the video and eBook have a combined size of 19 megabytes. The time to ... (view more)

Robert G. sent me this question: " There appears to be a limit to the number of programs that can be listed in the Windows XP Start Menu [start button] when using Classic View. Is there a way to increase the number of programs that can be displayed ... at one time, without having to click that double arrow at the bottom of the Window? " My response:I also use the Classic View for my Start Menu ... and it bugs me when I have to constantly click on that double arrow to show all contents. As far as I know, the Expand [Documents, Pictures, ... Printers] option allows you to view all ... (view more)

Today I received an email from Rose J. who recently downloaded my video tutorial and eBook on How to Install / Reinstall Windows: " I need to [copy your] video on to a disk, and I can't seem to do that. Can you explain the procedure in detail? " At ... first, I thought Rose was asking about how to burn the files to a CD Recordable. I later out found that she doesn't have a CD recorder, and she wanted to use her floppy disk drive to back up the files. That makes things a bit difficult, since the tutorial is almost 19 megabytes in size. Before I go into instruction on how this would be ... (view more)