Infopackets Reader Warren P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm a new member of your newsletter and have a question! I have Word Perfect 2000 installed on my computer. It appears that I am no longer able to open Microsoft Word (.DOC) files. Earlier versions ... of .DOC files opened up in Word Pad. Any ideas? " My Response: There are a few possibilities that I can think of. Either: a) The Windows file association for .DOC files may have changed and no longer points to Word Pad, or b) The .DOC file could have been corrupt and is producing an error message. In this case, try to obtain another copy and avoid ... (view more)

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)

In a previous newsletter, Infopackets Reader Robert G. asked: " I have Windows XP and use the Classic Start Menu. Is there a way to show all programs, without having to click that double arrow at the bottom of the Start Menu?" My Response: In short, ... I wasn't sure how to do this. I mentioned in the previous newsletter that I tried a few options but nothing seemed to work. Shortly after the last newsletter was mailed out, a few Gazette Readers informed me of a combination of clicks which would rid the Start Menu of the double-arrows. As it turns out, disabling the "Use Personalized Menus" ... (view more)

Yesterday, I wrote about a problem that Ed B. from Long Island, New York had with some pictures not showing up as "thumbnails" in Windows XP. I suggested that Ed may have inadvertently saved some of his graphic files with the wrong extension. I ... received a few suggestions from readers with their thoughts. In fact, Pippie wrote to tell me about a security issue with viewing thumbnails in Windows XP: " MS turned off a few features in the Thumbnail View for stability ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Liz H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I appreciated the information on how to uninstall MSN/Windows Messenger -- although, I personally like it -- but, I'd rather see how to uninstall Windows Media Player (v9.0 beta specifically for Win ... XP) WITHOUT reformatting the hard drive or using System Restore. I'm of the opinion it can't be done without resorting to these fairly drastic measures. PS: Thank you for these wonderful newsletters! " My Response: I visited the Microsoft download web site in search of Media Player 9, and I found these comments: " Note: [Windows Media Player beta 9 ... (view more)

Yesterday's Visitor Feedback posed the question, "How can I stop the annoying voice on my Asus motherboard during the boot up process?" The answer to this question has been solved: the annoying voice that plagues Michael H. is actually a feature in ... the BIOS which can either be disabled completely, or customized with a different voice. I didn't receive any feedback on how to customize the voice, so I'll just tell you how to disable the darn thing. As Alan H. writes: " The feature that Michael is referring to is the Asus Post Reporter. It is a feature of the Asus P4B motherboard (and on other ... (view more)

Gazette Reader Ken P. writes: " Dear Dennis, When I attach a jpeg file to an email message it will send 8 copies. If I attach 2jpeg files 16 copies are sent etc.. It does not do it with bitmap or any text files just jpeg. They suggested reinstalling ... Norton Anti Virus, but there was no difference. I sent a test message with attached jpeg file to my computer at work and one message shows up in my in box, as a jpeg file, and the seven others show up in the deleted box as .DAT files. I did a virus scan and all is OK. What do you think? " My Response: The only time I've experienced anything ... (view more)

In this issue, I wanted to talk about the Scandisk dilemma that was addressed in a few issues ago in our Visitor Feedback. Recall: " I ran defrag on my hard drive using Windows XP Pro. Having completed that, I clicked on Scandisk to check the drive ... for errors. It was at this point that a window popped up and told me to shut down and reboot to run Scandisk. Now I can't get back into my system! Every time my system boots, it goes through the Scandisk. 3 hours later, it finishes Scandisk, then reboots the system... and restarts the process over again. When I try and cancel Scandisk, the computer ... (view more)

Gazette Reader Jim J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I ran defrag on my hard drive using Windows XP PRO. Having completed that, I clicked on Scandisk to check the drive for errors. It was at this point that a window popped up and told me to shut down and ... reboot to run Scandisk. Now I can't get back into my system! Every time my system boots, it goes through the Scandisk. 3 hours later, it finishes Scandisk, then reboots the system... and restarts the process over again. When I try and cancel Scandisk, the computer freezes! Any suggestions? " My Response: I tried to find the solution to this problem ... (view more)