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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)

Continuing on from our previous discussions with regard to converting VHS video and archiving to DVD or CD, Infopackets Reader Jim L. wrote in with the proceeding follow-up question: " Dear Dennis, First, in reference to the program 'DVDSqueeze' ... that I spoke of previously: now that I think about it, I believe the program was linked from your newsletter through the Google ads. I didn't see the ad in January 20th's newsletter [regarding the conversion of 8MM film to DVD / CD ]; however, I did read the comments you recently made concerning Movie Shrink and Burn (MSaB). Although MSaB sounds ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John T. 'oldbiker' writes: " Dear Dennis, First of all I think your newsletter -- it's great. I recently partitioned [split] my hard drive into two drive letters (C and D drives), so that I could move my installed programs over to ... D drive and leave C for Windows only. This way, if Windows crashes on me, I can format C drive and not worry about losing any my improtant data (on D drive). [Side note: This is also a great strategy for keeping disk image backups small, and to reduce the time it takes to create an image file]. My question: is there a program that will ... (view more)

I can't imaging what my life would be like if I didn't know how to program in PERL. Side note: PERL stands for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language, and is a robust programming language frequently used for creating programs that run on web ... servers. (Source: wmo.ch ) Perl's elaborate support for regular expression matching and substitution has made it the language of choice for tasks involving string manipulation. The language's highly flexible syntax and concise regular expression operators, make densely written PERL code indecipherable to the uninitiated. The syntax is, however, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Dirk J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm a bit confused about the outcome of scans performed by 'Registry Mechanic' and 'RegSeeker'. RegSeeker always finds more than 50 'problems' even if Registry Mechanic has done it's job and ... corrected the 'problems' it found. Does this mean that a program like RegSeeker is more thorough than Registry Mechanic -- or does it just work in a different way? It reminds me of identical differences in the outcome of spy scans by Spybot and AdAware. Thank you for being a such a beacon in the IT jungle. " My response: I get asked similar ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Peter D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 2000 Professional on a machine that uses a Pentium 3 processor. After around 1 hour online, a RAM defrag utility I use reports that most of my RAM has been lost and I need to ... defrag. Can you tell me why I lose most of my RAM, and why it's necessary to defrag constantly? PS: your newsletter is great. " My response: RAM is just that -- Random Access Memory -- which means that it will get fragmented *very* quickly as computing information is randomly written, read, and deleted from memory. It is true: RAM gets ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bruce J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am writing to you about a rather strange problem that appears in my System Configuration Utility. When I click on the Startup tab, there is a column area labeled 'SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ ... CurrentVersion \ Run'. There is nothing listed in this column and I'm really not sure what this is, or if it's a virus of some sort. I was hoping that maybe you could help me identify this? Thanks for your time and consideration on this issue. " My response: You didn't mention what program you're using to edit your Startup preferences, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Denise A. writes: " Hi Dennis, First let me say that I thoroughly enjoy your newsletter. What a wealth of information it is! I just finished reading Tuesday's Gazette article, ' restricting access to portions of the start menu ', ... for the sake of security. My question is this: can a folder or certain file be password protected? I am running Windows XP. " My response: If you own more than one computer and have a local area network, you can can restrict who has access to what by setting the "share" privileges on Folders. On the other hand: if you only own 1 ... (view more)

Recall -- Yesterday, Infopackets Reader Don R. asked if I had any suggestions for running old DOS programs in a Windows environment. In my response , I provided some links to sites with helpful DOS / Windows information (especially for games), but ... then asked Infopackets Readers for additional info. DOS-enthusiast Mike K. writes: " You're welcome to 'steal' anything useful from my website (KennedySoftware.ie). In particular, you might take a very quick look at LesSpace, PatchCRT, and some long-winded notes on running 'Old-Apps' in newer OSes and PCs. If you or any of your Readers have ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I run some old DOS programs on my new XP PC and am running into memory problems. I have tried all the memory manager options I see, but they have no result. Any suggestions? " Side note: MS DOS is the ... predecessor operating system to Microsoft Windows. Unlike Windows, DOS operates from a command line. For example: to load a program, you would typically need to navigate to a program folder (by issuing DOS commands) and then execute a program by typing in its name. A sample MS DOS Window can be seen here . My response: I get asked this ( ... (view more)