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Synopsis: Does your computer contain sensitive information? Of course it does! Whether you're surfing the web, chatting with friends, emailing co-workers, or downloading files via P2P [file sharing] -- almost everything you do on your computer can ... be retraced, dissected, and scrutinized. Thankfully, there's programs like CyberScrub Privacy Suite that can erase your tracks and protect your privacy! With the maximum "5 star" rating from Download.com, CyberScrub Privacy Suite's helpful interface allows you to: irrecoverably delete files, clean Windows traces (recently opened files, Run history, ... (view more)

Synopsis: What's the best way to archive your favorite web pages and web media permanently? Answer: MetaProducts Offline Explorer! Using a clear, intuitive and convenient user interface, Offline Explorer downloads Web and FTP sites (up to 500 ... simultaneously!) at the highest possible speed so you can browse, search, export to CD or perform other operations on downloaded sites. Among its many awards, Offline Explorer is a ZDNet.com 5-star winner! Offline Explorer: Screenshots Click to view: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4. 10 Reasons why you should be using Offline Explorer (1) A Powerful, ... (view more)

Drive Rescue Drive Rescue is a program for exploring your hard disk, and locating lost files on it. The idea for this program originated from processing a disk with Scandisk -- which suddenly contained no data. Since off-the-shelf Windows methods ... could not recover any of it, this program was successfully created, to find important information of the file system, to look for lost data and to restore it. http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/driverescue19d.html The Jargon File This document is a collection of slang terms used by various subcultures of computer hackers. Though some technical material ... (view more)

Synopsis: Have you ever wanted to take all your favorites songs from various CDs and then re-record them onto your very own "greatest hits" disc? With ImTOO CD Ripper, you can! ImTOO CD Ripper allows you to copy (or "rip") entire music CDs / ... selected tracks to your computer; then, using your favorite CD burning program, you can re-record them onto 1 disc. ImTOO CD Ripper is suitable for both veterans and beginners; it's user friendly interface allows you to complete CD ripping with only a few minutes! ImTOO CD Ripper: it's also an Audio Converter The main function of ImTOO CD Ripper is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'P.S. Liew' writes: " Dear Dennis, Over the years, my 'temp' folder in Windows [located at c:\windows\temp] has gathered quite a substantial amount of temporary, space-eating files as well as Internet browser history items such as ... cookies, cache and the like. I am contemplating whether or not I should delete these files in order to reclaim hard disk space, but prior to doing so, I would like to get some pointers from you as to which selection of files in this folder is safe to delete. Am I wrong to assume that it is safe to completely delete all files in c:\windows\ ... (view more)

Continuing on with our in-depth discussions on backup solutions , this article will review Acronis True Image version 8.0. This will be the final article in our 7-part series, stretching back almost 1 month to date: Choosing a Backup Solution: An In ... Depth Look 6 Key Elements for any Backup Strategy Backup Made Easy: A Six Point Guide to Buying Backup Software Genie Backup Manager Review System Restore and similar Registry Reverting utilities -- pointless? The results are in: which Disk Imaging Backup software is best? Acronis True Image Review (version 8): In Depth RE: Disk Imaging software ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bill S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just finished reading your article on how important it is to maintain a clean System Registry in order to achieve optimal PC performance. I have a question for you: I have two computers (one with ... Windows XP and the other with Windows 98); the Windows XP computer has a feature called "system restore" which automatically reverts my System Registry to a previously working state [in case I get attacked with Spyware, for example] ... however, my Windows 98 PC doesn't have the system restore feature. My question is: how can I backup ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Polly B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've downloaded and successfully installed Service Pack 2 onto my computer. The only complaint I have so far is that Outlook Express is so security tight, that a lot of the email messages I have put ... aside (with file attachments) now cannot be opened. I went in and took off the Outlook Express Security 'do not allow me to open potentially dangerous attachments' option, and now everything is OK. I felt safe in choosing to disable this 'security features' because I use Norton Security which blocks potentially malicious email attachments. My ... (view more)

It's been a rough couple of weeks: it seems like every time I try to take a step forward, I end up taking 3 steps backward. After I got home from visiting Frank in Toronto, my main computer (the one that I use to write the newsletters) kept crashing ... with repeated Blue Screens of Death (BSOD). The BSOD's gave me some clue as to why my system was crashing, as the .DLL file responsible for the crash appeared to be related to my video card driver. Strange, I thought. I didn't upgrade my video card driver recently, but opted to do so as I hadn't upgraded my driver in over a year. Video card ... (view more)

Since writing this newsletter, I have received a number of questions with respect to burning CD recordable discs. One question came from Infopackets Reader Bob T., who recently asked how it was possible to transport movie files from his computer ... onto his DVD player. Bob writes: " Dennis, I have a number of .MPEG movie files that I've downloaded through Kazaa. Friends tell me it is possible to play these files using my DVD player, but I need special CD burning software to do it. Is this true? If so, what program do you recommend? " And Infopackets Reader Sheila S. asked how to ... (view more)