Windows Tips

Tue
25
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

MSConfig errata

Last week's issue of the Infopackets Gazette was about the importance of using msconfig. The article also reviewed some third-party msconfig replacements for Windows 2000 users. I received a lot of feedback regarding the issue since the last ... newsletter was mailed. If you were unclear about how msconfig works, be sure to check out the revisions made to the article online. I have provided a few extra steps and a screen capture for clarity. One more note: I received email with regards to msconfig and the Klez Virus. Denise R. writes: " Dear Dennis, In reference to the recent newsletter, ... (view more)

Tue
18
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Defrag your hard drive in record time -- without headaches!

Infopackets Reader John A. writes: " If I did not try this, I would not believe it. This Sunday's local paper has a Tech Editor that submits regular articles weekly. This week the article caught my interest - as on many Computer Group forums -- the ... defrag utility, which comes with all versions of Microsoft Windows, is plagued with many problems. For example: defrag sometimes hangs/re-starts; won't complete; you have to run in Safe Mode; run ScanDisk first; close all programs; close anti-virus; close screen savers, etc... So I went to his Web Site which has about every conceivable ... (view more)

Tue
18
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

MSConfig Startup for Windows 2000 users

Last week I wrote an article which touched on a useful utility called msconfig. To recap what the program does: msconfig is a program that comes bundled with all version of Microsoft Windows, except Windows 2000. One of the most useful functions of ... the msconfig program is its Startup Tab which allows you to select / deselect programs from launching at the Windows Startup. Why is that so useful, you say? Well, I guess the answer to that question depends on what you have installed on your system. Sometimes, when a program is installed, it copies an instance of itself to the Windows Startup. ... (view more)

Tue
11
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

loadqm.exe -- another Microsoft disastrous Jewel

Whether you know it or not, Microsoft has a previous track-history for releasing sub-standard software that is known to be less than computer-friendly. What do I mean by "less than computer friendly?" Quite simply: either there are lots of bugs ... present in Microsoft's software, or their software has been known to make systems run sluggish . The Story Recently, I was visiting my brother and decided to hop on his system and surf the Internet. His machine consists of Microsoft Windows 98, has 128 meg of RAM, and is powered by a Celeron 600 MHz processor. Certainly, this system is not ... (view more)

Tue
28
May
Dennis Faas's picture

Another Method for Blocking Pop Up Ads?

Infopackets Reader Darren B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I was just reading your latest newsletter regarding computer internet security. I would be interested to know what you think of using the Windows hosts file as an ad-tracking blocking method. A ... pre-compiled hosts file of this type can be found at smartin-designs.com . To me, this is a much better method of blocking tracking than having ad blocking software using additional resources. You may also wish to make your readers aware of myiebrowser . It uses the IE engine, so it is a small download, and includes tabbed browsing, a pop-up ... (view more)

Tue
07
May
Dennis Faas's picture

How to Transfer Windows onto a new machine

Ron Smith wrote in and had a few comments to make about a past issue of the Infopackets Gazette, concerning whether or not Windows is transferable onto another machine using the same hard drive. While I still feel that installing Windows freshly on ... a new machine is a better choice, you may want to try Ron's suggestion if you're willing to get your hands dirty. Here's what he had to say: " Dear Dennis, With deep respect, I feel that your answer was incomplete when you advised that Annette couldn't take over her hard drive to the new computer. Last week, I did exactly that, and it was ... (view more)

Sun
14
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Unlimited Bandwidth Shopping for a New Web Host and Server

Have you ever wondered where you are connected to when you're visiting a web site? Believe it or not, every web site in cyberspace resides on a computer which is physically located somewhere in the world. Each server is "hosted" by a company which ... dictates the configuration of each server, such as: how many web sites reside on each web server, server-to-Internet connection speed, how much information can be transferred per site per month (also known as bandwidth limitations), and the like. Different web-hosting packages are offered by different web-hosting companies and define the ... (view more)

Mon
01
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

How to backup and Restore Data from a Corrupt Hard Drive

Earlier this week I sent out a very controversial article to a few other online ezines (electronic magazines) in hopes of syndicating the Infopackets Gazette to help increase our readership. If you haven't visited infopackets.com recently, you might ... have missed the intriguing article about Mcafee Anti Virus. The article questioned whether or not McAfee purposely mislead users to purchase an update to their Virus Scan software ($39.95), when in fact, it was not required for some users. The article was an instant hit. It was published on a few major web sites and generated quite a bit of ... (view more)

Mon
01
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Can I load WINDOWS 98 and XP on the same computer?

Infopackets Reader Derek C. asks, "How can I load and run WINDOWS 98 and XP on the same computer? " My response: As far as I can remember, Microsoft does not recommend running two different version of Windows on the same hard drive partition (IE: C ... drive for Windows 98 and C drive for Windows XP) because files end up over writing themselves. I personally experienced this -- and WinXP even warns against this during install. The only way to overcome this was to create a new hard drive partition (D drive) by slicing my existing C drive into two separate pieces (a C and a D drive on the ... (view more)

Fri
01
Mar
Dennis Faas's picture

CD Recording Problems at 24x?

Infopackets Reader Victor R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently bought a CD-RW 24x10x40 drive and have used to to copy two disk without trouble. Lately, I tried to make an audio CD from files that I downloaded from the net. I got up to 75% completion ... and then my computer had a fatal error. The error was 'Vcache (01) +00000fc7 Error: oe: c004E663'; I wasn't sure if my computer was fast enough for the 24 spin recorder, so I tried slowing the speed of the copying process but still received the same error. As another possibility, I turned off the virus protect and all other running programs ... (view more)

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