Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Rosalind H. writes: " Dear Infopackets Team, My teenager recently downloaded Limewire onto our computer. As I am very wary of shareware programs, I would like to know whatever you can tell me about this and similar popular ... programs. Is it safe? Thanks for your response. " Doug's Response: Limewire is a peer-to-peer ("P2P") application that permits the user to download files from a server community. The general usage is to download music files to be played on iPods (or other MPEG3 players) or computer systems. If misused by copying/downloading copyrighted material ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Harold D. writes: " Dear Dennis, On a new computer or when the operating system is first installed, there is a box that pops up in Internet Explorer that asks if I want to Remember my Login and Passwords on a web site. There is ... also an option you can select that says something to the effect of, 'Don't ask to save anymore passwords," and if you select that option, that box will never appear again.' My question is: how do I turn that feature back on? I have searched everything I can think of on the net and cannot find an answer to this problem. Any help would be greatly ... (view more)

I have most wonderful news! Over the past few weeks I've been in contact with PC Tools (the makers of Spyware Doctor, Registry Mechanic, and Privacy Guardian); after explaining our current funding situation , PC Tools has agreed to discount Spyware ... Doctor by an incredible 20% off the retail price to help raise funds for our web site. Reminder: What is Spyware Doctor? In short, Spyware Doctor is a multi-award winning Spyware removal utility that can instantly remove thousands of Spyware and adware traces, Trojans, keyloggers, tracking threats, and other nasty Spybots from your PC. Last year, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Robert G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been a fan of your newsletter for quite some time. Thanks for that! Question: at the end of the day, is it best to log off and keep the computer running and ready for the next time it is used, ... or should I shut it down completely and power off? I've heard different variations on the answer to this age-old question. If I leave it running, the fans are always spinning, which causes wear and tear. What do you think? " My response: Good question! I personally always leave my laptop running 24 hours a day because I'm always using it (I'm ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don B. writes: " Dear Infopackets Team, I have never made a disk image before. My question is: if I make a complete image backup of my C drive (25Gigabytes large), can I then erase my drive and proceed to restore my image backup? ... Or is disk imaging good only for restoring broken files, but not for doing a complete system restore on a clean drive? I guess I'm a bit confused. What I would like to do is wipe out my hard drive completely, then install Windows XP fresh and all the updates and security software, plus a few program essentials (like MS Office). After doing all of ... (view more)

Recently, Kaspersky Labs detected a new form of spam email which contains an attachment of a password-stealing Trojan horse. The attached malware, which is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's consent, is ... called "Trojan-PSW.Win32.Sinowal.u" (herein referred to as "PSW"). (Source: viruslist.com ) Senior research engineers at Kaspersky Lab refer to PSW as being "the next-generation Trojan." The variant is part of the "Sinowal" family of password stealing Trojans, which is designed to steal usernames and passwords entered ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Les M. writes: " Dear Dennis, In December 2003, I purchased a copy of Windows XP Home Edition as part of an upgrade to my PC (main board, processor, RAM, etc), from a local dealer in the UK. This software cost me over $100.00 US ... dollars. During the subsequent time, I have on several occasions had to format my hard drive and reload Windows, due to otherwise insoluble problems. As you probably already know, every time a fresh copy of Windows XP is reloaded, you are required to activate it online within 30 days. Two or three days ago, I switched on my PC as usual and waited ( ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Rose' Writes: " Dear Dennis, My question for you today is: how can I make my CD ROM Drive available to users logging in with Administrator rights only? Here's the problem: my kid brother shares the family computer, which has ... Windows XP professional installed on it. He likes to play online games (which are installed via the CD ROM drive); unfortunately, the games he plays seem to crashed the system. As such, I've set up a separate user account with 'general' user access and have disabled the network card so that he cannot access the Internet when using the computer. Now, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Cathryn' writes: " Dear Dennis, My computer will not recognize my CD ROM drive (the D drive). For example: when I put a disc into the CD drive, the mouse pointer briefly changes to a CD icon (as it normally does) to tell me -- ... presumably -- that the drive is scanning the disc for its Table Of Contents. However, the CD icon only appears for a split second (when normally it would take a few seconds to read the contents). When I double-click on the D drive to run the CD, it prompts me to 'Please insert disc into Drive D', when in fact there is already a disc in the drive. Can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader "JS" writes: " Dear Dennis, Great job with your newsletter! According to a post at WilderSecurity.com, Acronis True Image 9 build 3633 does not run on Windows 98 SE (Second Edition) machines. Acronis has responded to the issue and ... plans to release a fix in the next update. Please advise your Windows 98 readers of this before they download True Image 9. One last thing: I understand that the True Image 9 (TI9) discount expires tomorrow . Can you arrange to have the Acronis 9 discount apply to the version of TI9 which will support 98SE? I would hate to buy something that I can ... (view more)