Sunday, February 15, 2004 :::
To search Microsoft of any update path by its number use the following link by default :
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;XXXXXX
::: posted by Muhammad at 10:23 PM
Wednesday, October 08, 2003 :::
CD Autorun Programs
Well Steve, Claymore comes to the rescue... "Although I haven't done exactly what you're proposing, I think it's quite possible. I could probably do it from scratch using just Word and an Autorun file, but this freeware utility might make things easier. Scroll down the page (it's worth reading!) till you find the download link. On the same page, you will find HTMLautoplay.zip; also very useful, also freeware. Don't forget to create at least a simple Autorun file with at least these three lines:
[autorun]
open=xxxxx.xxx
icon=xxxxxx.xxx
The open command would point to the program you want to start when the CD is inserted. The icon command can point to a program and will extract its icon to display for the CD drive in Explorer. The file is always saved with the name autorun.inf and burned to the CD. Good luck!" [Jim and his Hosting Special]
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:48 AM
Thursday, July 03, 2003 :::
Updateable LInks in Excel
-Open Excel.
-Design the document as you wish it to appear.
-Select the cell where you want the weather information to begin.
-Click Data | Get External Data | New Web Query.
-In the first field ("Enter the address..."), enter http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/print/33755, replacing the 33755 with the ZIP code for the area for which you desire a forecast.
-In the second field ("Choose the part of the web page..."), select the option button for "Only the tables."
-In the third field ("Choose how much formatting..."), select the option button for "None." Click OK.
-In the "Returning External Data to Microsoft Excel" dialog box, confirm the location where you want the information to start appearing. Click "Properties." Maintain the selections for "Save query definition" and "Enable background refresh," and select "Refresh data on file open." Deselect "Adjust column width" and "Preserve cell formatting." Finally, select the option for "Overwrite existing cells with new data, clear unused cells." Click on OK.
-In the "Returning External Data to Microsoft Excel" dialog box, confirm the cell where you wish to begin inputting the information. Click OK.
-Once the information has been imported, you'll need to delete just a few cells containing unnecessary data.
-Save the spreadsheet and you're good to go. The next time the file is opened, the most current information from weather.com for the indicated ZIP code will be placed where you indicated.
"I know many people aren't accustomed to using Excel as a surrogate desktop publishing tool, but I find it offers me more control over the placement of the various elements than Word."
::: posted by Muhammad at 7:24 AM
Thursday, June 12, 2003 :::
Troubleshooting Word 2000 Damaged Documents - Microsoft kb article
Recovering from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents WinXP from Starting
Custom Bootable CDs - Information Week Articles
::: posted by Muhammad at 10:53 PM
Wednesday, June 11, 2003 :::
CD Cataloging
Visual CD is a disk-cataloging tool to index data CDs, floppy disks, hard drives and even folders. Once indexed, you can explore the CD catalogs, and search files and folders without having the physical disk in the drive. A built-in favorites manager allows you to easily manage multiple catalogs, and a powerful search feature lets you search across multiple catalogs. The program comes with several additional options, you can split files into smaller pieces, extract ZIP, RAR, and CAB archives, rename files, copy the entire CD to a new location, and more. Visual CD provides a clean and attractive interface and optional Explorer integration from the right-click menu
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:28 AM
Tuesday, June 10, 2003 :::
IE opens off the screen
To get to the registry, click Start | Run, then type "regedit" (sans quotes) and click OK.
Now, navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Main.
Once there, you need to delete the registry value called "windows_placement" (sans quotes).
Now, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Desktop \ Old WorkArea, and then delete the registry value named "OldWorkAreaRects" (sans quotes).
All that is left is to restart your computer, and from now on your Internet Explorer new windows will open on the screen. Good luck!
::: posted by Muhammad at 11:48 PM
Wednesday, May 28, 2003 :::
Customized Bootable CDs for Anticrash measures
I've done this, starting with the contents of a basic Windows 98 DOS boot
floppy, and adding my favorite DOS maintenance/recovery tools. I turn it
into a bootable CD that loads Win98's version of DOS, and that has all my
DOS-based tools available. (See this ancient series on DOS for more info:
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/15.htm
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/16.htm
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/17.htm
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/21.htm
Having all those tools on a single, bootable CD has been a lifesaver---
and is far easier than carrying around a caddy full of floppies!
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:05 AM
Tuesday, May 27, 2003 :::
Question:
I am running WinXP Pro. When I right-click on a file or folder, and use the "Send To" menu, there are only two options on the menu: "Send to 3.5 floppy" or "Send to CD burner." Before, there were several options, such as "Mail recipient," "Zip file," etc. What happened to this menu, and how do I get it back?
Answer:
The contents of the "Send To" menu match the contents in your "SendTo" folder. This folder can be found in different places depending on your Windows operating system. Do a search for the "SendTo" folder and you should find it. Since you use Windows XP, you'll find it in C: \ Documents and Settings \ User Name. The "SendTo" folder is hidden by default, so you may have to go to Tools | Folder Options | Show Hidden Files and Folders. For those using Win98, the file is in the C:\Windows directory.
To add contents like the Zip file, e-mail, etc., by creating a shortcut in that folder. To remove an item, just delete the shortcut. Another neat trick: if you want to play an audio file in a specific application rather than the default application, right- click on the file and "SendTo" the audio application. Before this can work, you need to have a shortcut for the audio application in the... you got it, "SendTo" folder. You can even create a subfolder in the "SendTo" folder to group applications such as multimedia, word processing, and so on. As for why your options disappeared, that's hard to say without looking at your system and knowing what has been done recently.
::: posted by Muhammad at 4:23 AM
Tuesday, March 11, 2003 :::
Question :I would like to add more fonts to my computer. The info I got to do this said to click Start | Settings | Control Panel and then double-click Fonts, and then go to the file menu and click "Install New Font." When I go to the File menu, I do not have the menu item "Install New Font." I am running Windows 98 SE with Microsoft Word, Works, and Publisher installed. How do I solve this problem?
Answer: The good news is that you are following the proper instructions. Another way to do this is to copy your fonts (using Windows Explorer) to the C:\Windows\Fonts folder, but I have to warn you that I have occasionally seen this last method NOT register a font properly.
Having mentioned that, let's get back into your missing Install New Font menu item. This can happen for three reasons: the system and read-only attributes are no longer set on the Fonts folder, the Fontext.dll file is missing/damaged, or the Desktop.ini file may be missing/damaged. We'll start with the easiest fix first, and that is repairing the attributes on the Fonts folder. For this, follow these steps:
Click Start | Run, type "command" (sans quotes), and click OK.
At the command window, type "cd\windows" (sans quotes) and hit Enter. You'll then be at the C:\Windows directory.
Now type in "attrib +s +r fonts" (sans quotes).
Now, just restart Windows, and your Install New Font menu item should be back.
If this doesn't work, then it may be a missing or damaged Fontext.dll file. To fix this, do the following:
Restart Windows, and choose to restart in MS-DOS mode.
At the command prompt, type "cd\windows\system" (sans quotes) and hit Enter to switch to the C:\Windows\System folder.
Now, type "dir fontext.dll" (sans quotes) and hit Enter.
(If your machine does NOT have a Fontext.dll file, then proceed to the next step in these instructions.) If it DOES find a Fontext.dll file, then you need to type "rename fontext.dll fontext.old" (sans quotes), and hit Enter to rename your damaged Fontext.dll file. Type "exit" (sans quotes) to restart back into Windows.
To recreate your Fontext.dll file, we need to extract a good copy of it from your Windows 98 install files. Click Start | Run, type "sfc" (sans quotes) and click OK.
Click "Extract one file from installation disk" and in the "Specify the system file you would like to restore" box, type "C:\Windows\System\Fontext.dll" (sans quotes).
Click Start, and in the "Restore From" box, click Browse. Now, browse to your Windows 98 CD or to your Cab files. (On some machines you can find the Cab files in C:\Cabs or in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs.
Click OK and follow the on-screen instructions. When all this is done just restart Windows.
If all this doesn't work, then we still have one more possible fix: replacing the Desktop.ini file. To do this, follow these steps:
Restart Windows and choose to restart in MS-DOS mode.
At the command prompt, type "cd\windows\fonts" (sans quotes) and hit Enter to switch to the C:\Windows\Fonts folder.
Type "rename desktop.ini desktop.old" (sans quotes) and hit Enter to rename your damaged desktop.ini file.
Type "exit" (sans quotes) to restart into Windows. Now, we need to extract a good copy of the Desktop.ini file from your Windows 98 install files.
Click Start | Run, then type "sfc" (sans quotes) and click OK.
Click "Extract one file from installation disk," and in the "Specify the system file you would like to restore" box type "C:\Windows\Fonts\Desktop.ini" (sans quotes).
Click Start, and in the "Restore From" box, click Browse. Now browse to your Windows 98 CD or to your Cab files. All that is left is to restart Windows.
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:10 AM
Wednesday, January 29, 2003 :::
Very Informative and useful Solutions at Rhebus.com
::: posted by Muhammad at 11:56 PM
Thursday, January 23, 2003 :::
Driver Tools
Specially recommended by Fred Langa is Win Driver
::: posted by Muhammad at 3:34 AM
Tuesday, January 21, 2003 :::
Changing menu items of right-click on the Start button
Answer: Funny you ask that question, because I had all this Winamp garbage in this menu and wanted it out, and I wanted to put a few frequently used programs into it instead. Right-clicking the Start button typically gives you Open, Explore, Search, and Properties options. If you have other stuff there that you never use, or you want to add something, go to the registry and get busy! (A quick reminder on how to get to the registry: Start | Run | Regedit.)
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and expand it.
Find the Directory folder and expand it.
Right-click on "shell", select New | Key, and give the key a name. In this example, I want to add a favorite freeware program called NoteTab, so I'll call the key "NoteTab."
On the right pane, double-click on the "(Default)" value, and add a title with an ampersand (&) in front of the letter as an accelerator key. In this case, it would be "&NoteTab." Click OK.
Right-click on &NoteTab (NOT Default), and select New | Key.
Call this key "COMMAND." Double-click on COMMAND and enter the full path and program you want to execute into the Value box. In this example, I entered "C:\Program Files\NoteTab Light\notetab.exe".
Close the registry editor. Now, right-click on Start, and the new program is there waiting for your click!
::: posted by Muhammad at 1:28 AM
Monday, January 20, 2003 :::
Resource Leaks and Solutions
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:06 AM
Sunday, January 19, 2003 :::
Microsoft Page of Fatal Exception Errors
::: posted by Muhammad at 10:54 PM
Thursday, January 16, 2003 :::
Password Recovery in Windows NT 4.0
- If Installation partition is FAT.
- Booth with win 95 floppy and rename c:\winnt\system32\config\sam to sam.bak
- Reboot and leave administrator password blank.
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:59 AM
Friday, January 10, 2003 :::
Outlook doesnt open browser
type in "REGSVR32 URLMON.DLL" in Run and enjoy.
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:16 AM
Tuesday, December 31, 2002 :::
CMOS Reset Utility
Killcmos.com is a utility that is used to add an extra "bit" to the CMOS memory which essentially corrupts the settings. When the CMOS settings are unusable, the BIOS intervenes and resets all values to default -- which also removes any CMOS password protection.
::: posted by Muhammad at 11:58 PM
Thursday, December 26, 2002 :::
Troubleshoot the "NTLDR Is Missing" Error Message in Windows 2000
This problem may occur if the basic input/output system (BIOS) on your computer is outdated, or if one or more of the following Windows boot files are missing or damaged: Ntldr, Ntdetect.com, and Boot.ini. To resolve this issue, verify that the BIOS on your computer is current, and then use one or more of the suggested methods, as appropriate to your situation, to repair the Windows 2000 startup environment." NTLDR is short for "NT Loader," a program loaded from the hard drive boot sector that displays the start up menu and helps Windows load. This error usually occurs after installing Windows 2000 after the first boot up.
::: posted by Muhammad at 11:25 PM
Wednesday, December 25, 2002 :::
Association of .jpg files with MSPaint
When you try to use Microsoft Paint to open a graphic file other than .bmp (bitmap), you're unlikely to be able to do it because Paint only provides support for bitmap files. Also, you may not have opened .jpg or .gif files in Microsoft Paint, which doesn't come with native filters for these two file types. Microsoft Office installs filters for .jpg and .gif, but they're not installed in Paint until the program actually opens a file with one of these types. To add the .gif and .jpg filters to Paint's "Save as Type" list, do the following:
Click Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Microsoft Office 2000 (or whatever version you have) | Add/Remove | Add or Remove Features. (whew!)
In the Microsoft Office 2000: Update Features dialog box, click the + sign next to Converters and Filters.
Click the list next to Graphics Filters, and then click to select the "Run all from My Computer" check box.
Click Update Now.
Start Microsoft Paint.
On the File menu, click Open. See if you can open GIF or JPG files. If it works, then try associating these file types with Paint again and see if you can click to open a JPG file. If not, it could be a registry-related problem. Details are at Microsoft Knowledgebase Articles 259444 and 193354.
::: posted by Muhammad at 9:57 PM
Configure Outlook Express to always open additional URLs in a new Internet Explorer window
For Microsoft Windows 2000
Double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop to start Windows Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
On the File Types tab, scroll down the list until you locate the N/A section in the Extensions column.
Click the N/A URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol entry, and then click Advanced.
In the Edit File Type dialog box that appears, click the OPEN entry in the Actions box, and then click Edit.
In the Editing action for type: URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol window, click to clear the Use DDE check box, and then click OK.
Click OK, click Close, and then quit Windows Explorer.
Quit all versions of Internet Explorer.
::: posted by Muhammad at 9:53 PM
Friday, December 20, 2002 :::
Resizing Startup Window in Windows 98
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ explorer\ Advanced.
Select New and then String Value from the Edit menu, and type StartMenuScrollPrograms as the name for the new value.
Double-click on the StartMenuScrollPrograms value, and type FALSE as the data for this value.
Click OK and then close the Registry Editor.
This setting should take effect immediately.
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:33 AM
Thursday, December 19, 2002 :::
Some Steps to Speed Windows 98
1) Set Startup Programs with msconfig.exe from Start > Run.
2) Defragment your drive.
3) Win98's WAlign utility can restructure the way programs are stored on your hard drive for the fastest-possible access once they're loaded into RAM and your CPU's cache. You could see load times improve by 20 precent or more. But on its own, WAlign (which you'll find at \Windows\System\WALIGN.EXE) only works on Microsoft Office programs.
4) Keep the trash to a manageable minimum, by periodically running Disk Cleanup. You'll find this utilty on this Start Menu submenu: Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools.
5) Win98 wants to manage your swap file (virtual memory) on its own. Windows is good at doing that for routine use: The swap file can grow or shrink as needed, and it doesn't have to be all in one place. But Win98 will work faster if the file is all in one place, and if the operating system doesn't have to constantly take time to enlarge or reduce the swap file area as you work.
To take control of your swap file, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Performance tab and the Virtual Memory button. Choose "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings." If you have more than one hard drive, place the swap file on the fastest drive you have. Now choose a minimum size for the swap file; a good starting point is to specify at least 2.5 times your system's RAM. Setting a large minimum size means the swap file will usually be large enough for your needs. Reboot when asked, and run Defrag to ensure the swap file's all in one piece. After you're done, you should experience noticeably less disk-thrashing.
6) Windows retains some internal performance settings carried over from the days when RAM was expensive. Today they're obsolete and even counterproductive. For example, right-click My Computer and choose Properties > Performance > File System. There you'll find that the Typical role is usually "Desktop Computer." If your PC has more than 32MB of RAM it'll operate slightly faster if you select "Network Server," even if it isn't really a server. (The Network Server setting uses a little more RAM for various disk buffers and caches to speed disk operations.) For most systems with abundant RAM, it makes sense to choose this server setting.
7) Tweak UI lets you improve your PC's responsiveness by setting faster menu speeds, adjusting your mouse's double-click sensitivity, turning off time- and CPU-cycle-wasting animations, and much more. On most Win98 CDs, you'll find Tweak UI in the \Tools\Reskit\Powertoy directory. Right-click the TWEAKUI.INF file and select Install. After it installs, open Control Panel, click the Tweak UI icon and tweak away.
Since newer versions of the Windows 98 CD no longer contain Tweak UI, and because Microsoft has released the much better new Tweak UI 1.33 version, Winmag.com has created the Step-by-Step: Installing Tweak UI 1.33 site. It helps you with downloading, installing, and using this ultra-popular Windows utility.
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:44 AM
The Nearly Secret DMA Can Speed Up Your Drives
Are you interested in some faster performance without spending one dime? There's a good chance you can speed up your hard drives, CDs, CDRs and DVDs -- for free -- with Windows' almost-hidden DMA setting. Doing so can make your drives as much as 15 percent faster, and reduce the load on your CPU by as much as 40 percent. But despite this easy-to-obtain speed benefit, some new systems still ship with the older, slower, non-DMA disk and CD/CDR/DVD access enabled; and many readers who could manually enable DMA access haven't done so. Here's the scoop with DMA, including how to see if it's working on your system; and if not, what to do about it!
DMA is "direct memory access" (sometimes also called "bus mastering"); a way a part of your computer to bypass the CPU and take a short cut through the system that can significantly speed operations.
In Windows, you can see your drives' current DMA settings by right-clicking on My Computer, then Properties, then Device Manager. Next, click on Disk Drives, then on your hard drive(s) -- you may see a nonspecific name such as "Generic IDE Disk Type 01" -- then on Properties, and then click on the Settings Tab. See if the DMA box is checked.
Next, follow the same steps for the CD-ROM(s) listed in your Device Manager.
Even if you have a system of reasonably recent vintage, there's an excellent chance you'll see an *UN*checked DMA option in the dialog box in one or both places. That's because non-DMA drive operations avoid possible compatibility issues. By choosing slower, more-conservative settings, system vendors can save themselves some support calls.
Microsoft Waffles
Microsoft is schizoid about DMA. On the one hand, it steers users to the slower, non-DMA settings by means of a dire warning that appears when you check the DMA box. The warning states, "Changing this setting may have undesirable effects on your hardware…." That's enough to scare off most people. Who wants to risk trashing a drive?
But Microsoft's KnowledgeBase also says (in part):
Many people are familiar with the gains to be had from using IDE hard drives and CD-ROM drives in DMA mode; a typical machine today will use 40 percent of the CPU doing hard drive transfers in PIO mode and use only 25 percent of the CPU doing hard drive transfers in DMA mode, on the same hardware...
Just to further illustrate its schizoid approach to DMA, Microsoft's KnowledgeBase also states that, "By default, DMA is enabled for hard disks on Windows 98-based and Windows Millennium Edition-based computers.…" Sounds great, but I have never -- not once in the hundreds of times I've installed Win98 and ME on various systems -- not once have I ever found this to be the case with my hardware. Windows makes DMA available -- it has the drivers -- but I have never found DMA to be auto-enabled. Rather, I always have to enable it manually.
As for other versions of Windows, Microsoft says Win95 can use DMA if you have DMA-capable hardware and a Win95-specific DMA driver from your hardware vendor. Oddly, the KnowledgeBase has almost nothing on DMA in Windows 2000.
Most major drive manufacturers have abundant DMA/Bus Mastering information (and drivers) on their sites; this is to be expected because today's fast ATA drives need DMA enabled to reach their full potential. See the Maxtor site or the Seagate site for example; both have good information on the subject.
CDs, DVDs, and CDRs, Too!
Curiously, although most newer CDs (and CD-Rs and DVDs) support DMA operation, there's not a lot of information on its use -- except for the usual dire warnings. And the warnings are amplified with CD-R: If you take things at face value, you might assume that, with DMA enabled, you'll never burn another CD again.
But I've been using DMA on all my hard drives and CD-type devices -- including CDRs and DVDs -- for some time now. With most hard drives, I've benchmarked the before and after speeds, and found an immediate 5 to 15 percent speed increase with DMA enabled. And some things (loading large apps, for example) feel much, much more than just 5 to 15 percent faster. I've had no trouble whatsoever using DMA.
Because DMA is a way to bypass the CPU, you might suspect that DMA's benefit is greatest on slower systems. And while there's some truth to that -- the more CPU-bound your system is, the more speed-increase you may see from DMA -- even the fastest system can benefit. On my newest system, for example, a 1.2GHz Athlon box with 256MB of RAM and an Ultra-ATA hard drive, manually enabling DMA speeded my hard drive read operations by almost 10MB/sec, and speeded writes by 13MB/sec.
But due to the vagaries of OS, hardware, and driver support, not every system sees DMA speed improvements all the time: The only way to be sure is to do your own before and after tests, using something like the free drive-throughput tests at WinTune to benchmark your before and after results. (You also can use other reputable hard-drive tests, such as those in Norton Utilities, or on the free PC Pitstop site.)
Want more info? We originally covered DMA access in this space more than a year ago. That article will tell you about the five different "modes" of drive operation, master/slave issues (when you have more than one device on an IDE cable) and lots more.
Ready To Try?
If you want to try DMA mode, visit the vendor site for your system and/or hard drive brand and search for information and advice on whether or not to use the DMA option. Or try this: Your system's BIOS information may show whether or not your have a DMA-capable drive.
If the answer is clearly yes or no, then stick with what the manufacturer says. But if the answer is unclear, and if you have a good backup, you might want to give it a try. Microsoft says that under Windows, if your drive doesn't support DMA transfers, nothing bad will happen, and the drive will simply revert to non-DMA mode. But I never, ever counsel you to trust your data to what's "supposed" to happen: Always make a backup of your essential files first, just in case.
Chances are, you probably can enable DMA on some or all of the drives and CDs that currently do not have it enabled, and pick up a nontrivial amount of speed that you've paid for -- but haven't been getting!
Give DMA a try, and then join the discussion area to tell us what your results were!
::: posted by Muhammad at 1:47 AM
Monday, December 16, 2002 :::
Paper CD Case Maker
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:40 AM
How to Use Registry Editor to Identify an Unknown PCI Device
::: posted by Muhammad at 2:33 AM
Thursday, December 12, 2002 :::
How to turn off colour behind the text of the desktop
An example of a program that does this for Windows 9x and NT4 computers is called DeskColor, which you can find at totalshareware.com. (And don't worry, this program is free!) I didn't forget about you Windows 2000/XP users out there... for you, I recommend SetColor, which works for every version of Windows and is available at 12ghosts.com.
::: posted by Muhammad at 4:44 AM
Wednesday, December 11, 2002 :::
How Websites Can Grab Our Email Addresses
Some browsers pass a header with your e-mail address to every Web server visited (using the HTTP_FROM header that browsers send to the server). Most browsers don't have this ability.
When you download and install freeware programs, some sneak spyware into your system, where it hides and communicates information without your knowledge or permission. Unfortunately, firewall software isn't enough defense to prevent this from happening. Our favorite 007 agent for tracking and destroying spyware is the free Ad-aware program from LavaSoft.
JavaScript can be a culprit. When a mouse rolls over a specific area of a page, the browser could be forced to send an e- mail without a warning, unless the browser is configured to avoid it.
Anonymous FTP isn't completely anonymous when a browser hits a bad guy Web site, where one of the images is fetched through an anonymous FTP connection. The person's e-mail address is often configured into the browser as the password for the anonymous FTP account.
IRC offers no TLC; some IRC hosts provide an e-mail address to anyone who requests one. Also, there are utilities that can obtain the screen names of folks in the AOL chat rooms. Spammers target AOL users because of its reputation as being the newbie's ISP of choice.
Daemons, pronounced "demons," are run in the background of many UNIX computers. Daemons allow other computers to identify who connects to them. When surfing from such a computer and connecting to another computer through a Web site or server, it can connect the person's computer back and ask that daemon for the person's e- mail address. Another type is the "finger" daemon. Conducting a finger query asking for Joe@host produces a list of login names for all Joes on that host. A query for @host produces a list of all currently logged-on users. Devilish, isn't it?
::: posted by Muhammad at 10:25 PM
Wednesday, November 06, 2002 :::
Removing MSN from XP
If you REALLY want to MSN Messenger once and for all, just do the following registry edit:
Click on Start and select Run.
Type Regedit in the text box and click OK or press the Enter key.
Click on the Plus Sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Now click on the plus next to Software, then Policies, and finally on Microsoft. With Microsoft Folder highlighted, click on Edit on the menu bar at the top of the Registry Editor window and select New, then Key.
Type "Messenger" (without the quotes) and press the Enter key.
With Messenger selected (highlighted) click Edit again, and click New and then Key. Type "Client" (again without quotes) and click OK.
The Client key should nest below the Messenger key.
With the Client key highlighted, click Edit again and this time click DWORD value.
Type "PreventRun" (no quotes) for this value and press the Enter key.
A new item will appear on the right side of the screen with the name PreventRun and the type REG_WORD. Right-click PreventRun and select Modify from the context menu.
In the Value Data field in the box that opens, change the existing "0" to a "1' (again, no quotes) and click OK.
Now close the Registry Editor by clicking on the X in the upper right corner of the Registry Editor window.
Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
::: posted by Muhammad at 10:55 PM
Friday, November 01, 2002 :::
XP Administrative Shares
Question: I upgraded my Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Home, and now I can't access the administrative shares that I used to in Windows 2000. Why doesn't this work, and is there a fix?
Answer: Microsoft actually disabled the administrative shares because of security implications on Windows XP Home. For those of you who are curious what an administrative share is, it is a shared folder on your system that is invisible to network browsing so that administrators can access your computer, but the regular user wouldn't even know you were there. In previous versions of Windows and in Windows XP Professional, the administrative shares ADMIN$ and Driveletter$ (for each hard drive) are made automatically. The dollar sign is what makes them invisible to regular network browsing. A workaround would be for you to just go to the drive or folder that you want to access via remote, right-click it, and choose Sharing and Security. Just choose "Share this folder" and give it a name. Remember, if you want the network share to be invisible to network browsing, then you need to put a $ on the end of the name. Hopefully this answered your question, and good luck setting up those network shares.
Removing User Login Information in Windows 98
Answer: In Windows 9x, you can remove most of the previous user information by first deleting the user's profile from the Profiles folder under C:\windows. Next, you need to go to Start | Find | Files and Folders, then type "*.pwl" (sans quotes) and click Find. Delete the previous user's PWL (Password Lists) file. Empty your Recycle Bin and then reboot, and that will remove the previous user's login information. If the user created any local data files such as Word documents then they most likely will still be on the machine depending on where the user saved this information. If you are on a home machine, then the easiest way to remove a previous user is to go into the Control Panel, click on Users, and delete the desired user. I would still go through the steps above to confirm that the user's information has been removed
CDR-CDRW COMPATIBILITY ISSUES
Question: I created a CD full of digital pictures for my daughter. The CD works fine on my Windows XP machine at home and on my Windows NT machine at work. However, my daughter's computer will not even recognize the CD. She doesn't have any problems with the computer recognizing any other CD except this one. Is there a way to fix this on my daughter's computer?
Answer: Welcome to the wonderful and sometimes frustrating world of CD creation! I think you have run into a simple problem of CD-to-system incompatibility. Several factors come into play when we are talking about system incompatibility, such as was the CD a CD-R, or a CD-RW? CD-RWs are far less compatible in older machines than CD-Rs are, so you may be able to resolve the issue by copying the data to a CD-R disk. If it already is a CD-R, you may be able to solve this problem by copying the data to a different brand CD-R. I don't know for certain why this happens, but when I first started creating CDs, my car's in-dash JVC CD player would play from every brand CD-R EXCEPT HP CD-Rs, and my Sony 6-disc CD changer would play from just about every brand CD-R EXCEPT Sony CD-Rs. You would think that a Sony CD Player should be able to read its own make of CD-Rs, but that just wasn't the case. I only bring up this story to outline the strange compatibility issues that can arise in CD creation. Try a different brand CD-R and I'm thinking that you will be fine. Keep in mind, though, that if your daughter's computer is really old and can't read ANY CD-Rs, then it is the CD-ROM drive that is out-of-date and incompatible, and it may need to be replaced to allow her to read CD-Rs.
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 97-2000 PROBLEM
Question: I am running Microsoft Outlook 2000 as my default e-mail client, but when certain friends send me e-mail I get a Winmail.dat file or a DAT file that start with ATT. I checked with the people with whom I am having this trouble, and they are running Microsoft Outlook too, but Outlook version 97. Why is this happening, and is there a way to fix it?
Answer: This is happening because your friends are using Microsoft Outlook 97, and this problem is caused by where Outlook 2000 looks for something called the TNEF Correlator field. When Outlook 2000 receives a message that contains Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF) information, it looks in the message header for the TNEF Correlator field and if it isn't there, then it puts the TNEF information into a DAT file, which is why you are seeing Winmail.dat. Outlook 97 doesn't put the TNEF Correlator field in the message header, so Outlook 2000 is forced to put that data into a DAT file. There are a couple workarounds for this and one is to have your friends send you messages in plain text. They can do this by going up to the Actions menu, selecting "New Mail Message Using," and then clicking "Plain Text." In the new message, they should type your e-mail address and then right-click it and choose properties. Make sure that the "Always send to this recipient in Microsoft Outlook rich-text format" check box is NOT selected, and then click OK. That will make that single message plain text, but you can also make every message that your friend sends to you a plain text message. Your friend will need to go into their Contacts and open up your contact information. From there, your friend will need to double-click your e-mail address and make sure to clear the "Always send to this recipient in Windows Messaging rich-text format" check box. Now, whenever your friend sends you a message, it should come as plain text... and that means no more pesky DAT files!
::: posted by Muhammad at 6:25 AM
OUTLOOK 2000 AND EXCEL ATTACHMENT
Question: I have Microsoft Outlook 2000 installed and I can't open Excel files that are e-mailed to me. When I try to double-click and open an Excel file, it never opens and if I minimize Excel then I get this error message: "The system cannot find the file specified." I have also tried opening the file by right-clicking it and saving the file to the Desktop but that doesn't open either. How can I fix my computer so I can open Excel files again?
Answer: I must admit that this question had me beat at first. I couldn't figure out why this was happening, but then I did a search in Microsoft's Knowledge Base and I found the answer to your question. To fix the problem, you need to open Excel, click on the Tools menu and choose Options. On the General tab you need to clear the check box next to "Ignore other applications," and then click OK. After you close Excel, then double-clicking the Excel file should work to open it. This problem occurs because Excel is ignoring something called dynamic data exchange (DDE) commands from Windows. Just follow these instructions, though, and you should be right as rain.
::: posted by Muhammad at 6:18 AM
