Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Jim M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I always have problems running Microsoft Windows defrag because it continually restarts and takes forever to finish. A lot of the time I have to restart my computer in Safe Mode and run defrag just to ... get it to finish properly -- and most of the time it takes 2 to 4 hours to complete and I cannot use my computer! I am writing you today because I just finished reading your latest article on PowerUp XP Platinum 2 , and noticed that you briefly mentioned a program called Magic Defrag. Can you please tell me how this works? I've never heard of ... (view more)

Synopsis: Discover the most realistic game of Checkers available -- with hundreds of game options at your fingertips! Popular variations include: Flying Kings, American, Russian, and many others. There's plenty of options for game play, including: ... game time limit, scoring, and piece movement. Plus, you'll get to learn to play checkers in 'basic play' and 'strategy mode' using the built-in our tutorial. Improve your skills, gain experience, and have plenty of fun -- whether you're an expert or a beginner, Championship Checkers is sure to please! Championship Checkers Pro: Screenshots Click to ... (view more)

In the context of administering computer systems, defragmentation (or defragging) is a process that eliminates fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically reorganizing the contents of the disk in order to store the pieces of each file ... close together and in order (contiguously). It also attempts to create large regions of free space using compaction, to impede the return of fragmentation. Aims of defragmentation Reading and writing data on a heavily fragmented hard drive is slowed down as the time for the heads to move between fragments on the disk surface can be substantial. The ... (view more)

Great news! Just this past Wednesday, I received wind that Ashampoo has released their flagship tweak utility, "Powerup XP Platinum", version 2. Reminder: What is Ashampoo PowerUp XP Platinum? PowerUp XP Platinum takes the hassle out of optimizing ... and fine-tuning a Windows PC and combines everything into one easy to use, tidy package. Rated 5/5 by the editor's at Download.com, PowerUp XP Platinum 2 includes all the powerful features that made its predecessor the favorite tuning tool of many Windows users -- plus it adds many new terrific and unique features that yield even more ... (view more)

Synopsis: Are you a system info junky? Need to know all your resources available and all the 'behind the scenes' happenings of your computer? Introducing: TaskInfo -- a poweful utility that goes *way* beyond the standard Windows Task Manager and ... generic System Information Tools. With TaskInfo, you can visually monitor all types of system information in real time, including: CPU usage, threads, processes, available memory, opened files, DLLs, network connections, network speeds, hung processes, and even invisible processes! TaskInfo: Screenshots Click to view: Page 1. With TaskInfo, you can ... (view more)

In computing, a reboot refers to restarting a device. A reboot can be a soft reboot or a hard reboot. Soft Reboot A soft reboot (also known as a warm reboot, in contrast to a cold reboot) is restarting a computer under software control, without ... removing power or (directly) triggering a reset line. It usually, though not always, refers to an orderly shut-down, rather than a "reboot". The Control-Alt-Delete key combination on the original IBM PC was designed to allow a soft reboot for a quicker and more convenient (and, some argue, less stressful on system components) restart than ... (view more)

Synopsis: Don't let the name fool you -- File Audio Processor is an award winning, extremely powerful all-in-one multimedia solution that does just about anything and everything related to multimedia file management, editing and viewing. Now that's ... a mouthful! In addition to its powerful audio processing capabilities, File Audio Processor can view video, pictures, rename files, edit MP3 tags, grab audio from CDs, write CDs and DVDs, convert audio files, edit and record audio files, manage playlists, zip files, and much, much more! There's so many convenient features of File Audio Processor, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Diane M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just love getting your newsletters! They have helped me so much in the past. My question is in regard to a process named ccApp.exe: when I shut down my computer, I often have to wait for a long ... time before it actually shuts down to reboot. Most of the time I will get an error stating that 'ccApp.exe is not responding' and when I click to end the process, my computer remains frozen. Often times I have to reset the computer manually. Can you please help me out with this problem? I'm running Windows XP. Thanks for any help you can offer ... (view more)

Stereophonic sound , commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of sound, using two independent audio channels, through a pair of widely separated speaker systems, in such a way as to create a pleasant and natural impression of sound heard from ... various directions as in natural hearing. The word "stereophonic", from Greek stereos = "solid" and phone = "sound", was coined by Western Electric, by analogy with the word "stereoscopic". Western Electric first demonstrated it at an SMPTE meeting in 1937, then to the general public at Carnegie Hall in 1940. In popular usage, stereo usually means 2- ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Dion E. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am trying to convert a tape to CD by transferring the audio to my computer, and then recording it to CD using my CD burner. To convert the tape to CD, I am using an audio cable to go from my ... earphone jack of my tape player to the sound card of my computer. The problem is that my computer is recording the tape audio in 1-channel mono sound (and not stereo!). I am reasonably sure that the original recording is in 2-channel stereo. What should I do? Thanks in anticipation for any help you can offer. " My response: I have a few ... (view more)