Dennis Faas

Fri
02
May
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Watch downloaded VCD movies from Kazaa on TV?

The last newsletter sparked some interesting discussion from readers. George P. from Lakeland, Florida asks: " I have created my own downloaded CD Discs that contain movies I got from Kazaa. They play absolutely perfectly on my monitor, but I'd like ... to be able to play them on my 27 inch TV. How can I play the same VCD on my TV instead of on my monitor? " My Response: There's a few things I need to address before answering George's question. First of all, George made reference to something called a VCD, which is an acronym for "Video CD." Video CDs have been around for ... (view more)

Wed
30
Apr
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How to use a PC DVD player and watch movies on TV

Infopackets Reader Frank R. asks: " My machine has Windows XP, a DVD ROM drive, and an ATI Radeon 9000 video card with S-VIDEO TV / OUT. Can I play DVDs from my computer and watch them on my 61" TV? What kind of cables do I need to attempt this? " ... My Answer: Yes you can! Go to your local Radio Shack and purchase the following cables: #1: Male S-Video to female RCA cable. This will plug into the back of your video card and convert the S-Video output into RCA output. An S-Video cable by itself is usually much more expensive than its RCA counterpart and provides roughly the same ... (view more)

Wed
30
Apr
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Friendship Screensaver Virus, Part 2

Greetings to all! I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I'm officially on vacation! Last Saturday, I left for Toronto and am currently visiting my friend, Frank. On May 3rd, I will be flying out of Pearson Airport in Toronto ... and will later arrive in Cancun, Mexico. I won't be back until May 12th. The bad news is that I have limited access to the Internet and cannot retrieve personal files and old emails from the office. Before I left for the trip, I planned to route all incoming emails to the office computer, and then later download them via FTP server (to another ... (view more)

Thu
24
Apr
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Windows XP won't Shut Down, Part 2

In the last newsletter, a user named Rezzy47 had problems shutting down and restarting his system in order to run ScanDisk on his hard drive. Recall: " I run Windows XP Home Edition. Every time I attempt to run ScanDisk [CHKDSK] on one of my hard ... drives, Windows gives me the message, ' Please wait while windows restarts ... ', but never does. Is there a fix to this problem? " My response: I didn't have a sure-fire fix for Rezzy47, but suggested the following: Install the latest Windows XP Service Pack (1) and bug fixes. Searching the Microsoft Knowledge Base / Dell web site for a fix. As a ... (view more)

Thu
24
Apr
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RoboForm 5.2.0 release

The previous 2 Feature Articles were about an alternative approach to Internet Explorer's time-saving AutoComplete function. Recall -- When enabled, the AutoComplete feature remembers (and completes) frequently used form data on web pages, such as ... user logins and passwords. Unfortunately, AutoComplete does not offer a method for exporting / backing up its form data which has been collected over time. This is very problematic for anyone who may need to format / reinstall Windows, or for users who use Disk Imaging software (like myself) to restore a previously working copy of Windows. I asked ... (view more)

Tue
22
Apr
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Windows Wont Shut Down?

Rezzy47 asks: " I'm running Windows XP Home Edition on a Dell 8200 Desktop computer. Every time I attempt to run ScanDisk [CHKDSK] on one of my hard drives, Windows gives me the message, ' Please wait while windows restarts ... ', but never does. I ... have to shut the computer down manually by turning off the power. Is there any solution to this problem? " My response: I know that the "shut down" feature under Windows hasn't worked properly since the days of Windows 95 ... but I figured that Microsoft licked this problem once-and-for-all with Windows XP. I guess not. ... (view more)

Tue
22
Apr
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Disable or enable AutoComplete in Internet Explorer?, Part 2

Last week , Rocky R. asked how to turn on the AutoComplete feature found in Internet Explorer. A quick recap: what is AutoComplete? When enabled, the AutoComplete feature remembers (and completes) frequently used form data on web pages. An example ... of a form might be one that asks you a name and password, such as the login form used at Hotmail.com. After providing instructions on how to enable / disable the AutoComplete in last week's newsletter, I furthered the discussion by introducing a dilemma of my own. My problem was that I sometimes have to revert back to an old image (backup) of ... (view more)

Thu
17
Apr
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Gibberish characters displayed in Internet Explorer?

Infopackets Reader John S. writes: " Quite often, my web browser displays gibberish characters throughout the entire web page, instead of the web page itself. I have to refresh the screen (sometimes repeatedly) to get the page to display correctly. ... This also sometimes happens to my emails, too. I did a clean reinstall of Windows, but it didn't help. Any suggestions? " My response: I was plagued with a similar problem for quite some time. After upgrading to Windows XP, my old firewall program (Black Ice) didn't work properly. I decided to replace Black Ice with Zone Alarm ... which ... (view more)

Thu
17
Apr
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Disable or enable AutoComplete in Internet Explorer?

A few days ago, Rocky R. asked me a question about the AutoComplete feature in Internet Explorer: " When I fill out a form on a new website, a dialog box appears asking if I would like auto complete to stop asking me to store info. Well, I ... accidentally hit 'Yes' -- and now I can't get auto complete to remember any information! Please help! " My answer: The AutoComplete feature can be enabled / disabled by modifying a preference in Internet Explorer. Here's how to change the setting with IE6: Load Internet Explorer Click Tools -> Internet Options Click the Content Tab Click the ... (view more)

Wed
16
Apr
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Acrobat Reader Pdf Files Wont Open?

Yesterday, Bill B. sent me a question regarding Adobe Acrobat Reader. Wait a sec -- what is Adobe Acrobat Reader? Acrobat Reader is a free-to-use tool which reads documents which contain the file extension ".PDF". The Portable Document Format has ... been around for quite some time and is supported by all major computer platforms (PC, Mac, Unix, OS/2, etc). Acrobat is a popular pick among eBook developers because it provides many useful features, including: document encryption (IE: the ability to copy-protect all / certain aspects of a document), bookmarks, clickable links, clickable ... (view more)

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