Dennis Faas

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)

Infopackets Reader Richard D. writes: " Dear Dennis, Can you please tell me if it is possible to disable the Windows Page File [also known as virtual memory or swap file]? I have an especially large amount of RAM inside my PC and as far as I'm ... concerned, I don't need the Windows Page File because I doubt I'd ever run out of available RAM. I've read a number of conflicting reports on the Internet that suggest it is possible to disable the Windows Swap File and that in doing so, my PC performance will be improved. However, I've also read that disabling virtual memory would be dangerous. What do ... (view more)

Microsoft's Office and Word contain a critical security hole that has already been exploited by hackers. According to Panda Software Labs, 1Table.A arrives as seemingly harmless Word document, but unlocks a backdoor Trojan that allows a hacker to ... run code on a victim's computer. Microsoft has released little to no information about the vulnerability affecting Office 2002/2003/XP and Word 2002/2003, but is already under pressure to fix the hole, as hacker attacks are surfacing via the dropper Trojan 1Table.A. If a user runs 1Table.A, it exploits this security problem to release a backdoor ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jill P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I find your articles very interesting and informative. Thanks for that. Question: In the My Documents folder, my music, pictures, etc. are appearing on my husband's screen of Windows XP. I tried to ... make the folder private (with no sharing privileges), but the option is ghosted and won't allow me to choose this feature no matter what I do. How can I make my folders private? " My response: According to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #307286, the folders you wish to remain private must reside in "your user profile (Drive_letter:\Documents and ... (view more)

In case you missed it: yesterday I announced that Acronis True Image version 9 is on sale through our web site at 20% off the regular price. Furthermore: if you purchased True Image 6, 7, or 8 through our web site previously, you can also grab the ... upgrade to version 9 at 20% off. I also announced that there was a major update to True Image version 9 that allows you to record directly to a DVD Recordable drive without using third-party packet writing software (as with previous versions). RE: Yesterday's Discount Codes Not Working Having said all that: I guess I "jumped the gun" a bit yesterday ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don S. writes: " Dear Dennis, Last year, I took your advice and downloaded Acronis True Image 8.0. Since then I have updated to version 9.0. This week I just received notice of a new update for version 9.0 that allows me to burn ... my image backups directly to DVD without any third-party packet-writing software. The update is available for free to current registered users. I just wanted to pass on this note. Thanks for all the good stuff you do! " https://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/updates/ My response: Thank you, Don, for sending me this email! A handful of users have ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Mary C. writes: " Dear Dennis, Is there a way to do a BCC [Blind Caron Copy] from a list of email addresses I keep stored in MS Word? I want to copy and paste email addresses to an email message using Outlook Express, but it seems ... that I can only do this if addresses are present in my Address Book. Can you help? " My response: You can copy and paste a list of email addresses into the BCC field (or the TO: field for that matter) by separating the list of email addresses with commas or semi colons. For example: email@one; email@two; email@three, etc. For more information on ... (view more)