system

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)

Infopackets Reader Richard D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've read on some web sites that people are using more than one Spyware scanner on their systems for an added layer of protection. In a similar respect, is it safe to run two virus protection ... programs at once? Can there be any conflicts? " My response: Both Spyware and Virus scanners operate using the same type of mechanism: a database of 'signatures', which are used to recognize infected or suspicious files on your system. The reason why some people choose to scan their systems twice is simply because not all Spyware databases ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Kathy O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am getting ready to build a new computer and plan to put Windows XP Home Edition with XP Service Pack 1, although I have already ordered the XP Service Pack 2 CD from Microsoft. As it stands now, ... I will be running both computers from my LinkSys router; however, I was told by a friend that I would need to turn off Windows XP's firewall from the Control Panel after I install Service Pack 2. Is this true? And also, is it necessary to apply XP Service Pack 2 since my router acts like a firewall? If so, should I disable the Windows Firewall ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don K. writes: " Dear Dennis, My computer has 1000 megabytes of primary system memory (RAM). I recently partitioned (split) one of my hard drives into a separate drive letter (Drive Z, for example) and set it as a dedicated unit ... handle all my virtual (secondary) memory. After it was all said and done, a friend of mine commented that having 1 gigabyte of RAM in my machine is plenty of primary memory, and I've wasted my time trying to optimize my system by setting up a separate drive letter for virtual memory. Do you agree with my friend's comments? " My response: ... (view more)

Today's issue of the Gazette marks the end of the special promotion for my Service Pack 2 Fail-Safe install guide . Reminder: you can save up to 54% off the guide if you purchase before midnight tonight. Before we move onto other topics of interest ... featured in our newsletter, I've decided to end this special promotion with a lightening round of SP2-related questions from our Readers. Answers are short-but-sweet and will address the most frequently asked questions I've received via email / from the newsletter over the last 2.5 months. Ready? Round 1 ... Begin! Q: " I have installed ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Suzie B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been keeping up with the buzz in your newsletter about Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Although I haven't downloaded your SP2 Fail-Safe Install Guide , I would like to make a comment on my ... nightmare-ish experience with Service Pack 2. When I heard about the extensive features and benefits of Service Pack 2, I thought it sounded great -- and so decided to install it onto my machine. And that's when my nightmare began. The first time I tried to install Service Pack 2, it took a few hours to complete the install. When it was all said ... (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)

Now that my XP Service Pack 2 Fail-Safe Installation Guide has been completed, I've started working on a few new projects in addition to revamping the layout of our web site (an enormous endeavor that began approximately 5 months ago). One of the ... new projects I started last week is an affiliate-tracking system that allows Infopackets Readers to resell our supplemental eBook and video tutorial guides. For example: if you refer someone to our web site and they buy a supplemental tutorial (such as the Service Pack 2 Fail-safe Guide), you can generate 30% on each sale. At the introductory price ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Doug L. wrote in with another question: " Many thanks for your quick response to my concern about GuruNet. I checked out your suggestions and appreciate your advice. I'm straight now and I will again download GuruNet for my 3 ... school-age sons. I have another question, if you don't mind. My oldest son (even though I told him not to) installed Kazaa on our family computer and downloaded some music. The problem now is that ALTNET [a third-party advertising program] has been installed on my machine along with Kazaa. It seems to be controlling my system by automatically ... (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)