Dennis Faas

Continuing on with our Feature Article on Registry Mechanic, here are some top Frequently Asked Questions about the Windows Registry, courtesy of PCTools.com: Q: " Do I really need to fix registry problems? " A: In short, yes. If you don't fix ... registry problems when they arise or try and prevent them from even happening at all, then you may soon find yourself faced with sudden crashes, system stalls, or a severe degradation in operating speed. Working to fix registry issues and prevent system crashes should be a top priority whether you use your computer for business or pleasure, ... (view more)

Great news! PCTools, the authors of the incredibly popular flagship utility 'Registry Mechanic', have just recently released version 4.0. If you've been keeping up with our newsletter, you've undoubtedly heard me mention this extremely beneficial ... utility a number of times in the past. Reminder: What is Registry Mechanic? Registry Mechanic is by far the most widely regarded Windows Registry Cleaner on the Internet -- not only because it's received countless rave reviews from credible online sources, but also because it is one of the few Registry cleaners on the market that actually delivers ... (view more)

Commenting on yesterday's article concerning How to track down and report a Hacker , Infopackets Reader Robert M. writes: " I read yesterday's article with great interest; however, I noticed that you did not really define the different types of ... Hackers that are out there. I'd like to briefly comment on that, with some definitions I've come across. Hacker: While there are *many* different definitions of the term 'Hacker', Google's #1 answer reads, "[Hacker]: a slang term for a computer enthusiast. Among professional programmers, the term hacker implies an amateur or a programmer who ... (view more)

Happy Birthday to me! Today, I turn 30. Special thanks to those folks who noted my Birthday pre-announcement in the "today in History" section in Yesterday's newsletter. And now getting on with today's question, Infopackets Reader Roberta W. writes: ... " Dear Dennis, I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to report a hacker that has been trying to hack in to my computer. I have 3 firewalls and plenty of antivirus software installed on my computer. I keep getting messages that dav.bay0.hotmail.com is 'sniffing' my communication ports, and is attempting to send me ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Frank K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've taken all of my photos and scanned them into the computer. I later decided to record the photos to CD so that I could archive them permanently and view them at my leisure. A friend of mine told ... me that my home DVD player can also play image files, much like a 'photo CD'. The problem is that the photo CD that I made only plays some of the image files. Can you tell me why this is so, and how I can go about correcting the problem? " My response: Most DVD players can play only play .JPG (or 'JPEG') image files. Image files come in ... (view more)

Recall - - Last week I talked about a utility called ISOBuster, which is able to retrieve data from stubborn DVD and CDs. Unfortunately I wasn't 100% correct when I reported that ISOBuster is freeware. To better explain ISOBuster's 'freeware' ... functionality, the author of ISOBuster (Peter Van Hove) emailed me the following message: " Dear Dennis, I saw in today's newsletter that you mentioned ISOBuster which is GREAT! And you're right, ISOBuster is ideal for data recovery from CD and DVD -- especially for getting data back from CDs created with DirectCD, Drag 2 Disc, InCD, DLA and other ... (view more)

Last week, I wrote about a new, free service called answers.com that offers '1-click answers to 1 million topics at your fingertips.' Since the article was published, I've received a number of positive emails. Infopackets Reader Dawn B. writes: " ... Dear Dennis, Recently, my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I have been scouring the Internet for anything I could find pertaining to his illness, but was discouraged by all the irrelevant pages and 'page not found' errors. After I read your article on answers.com, I decided to give it a try. Let me tell you -- I was completely amazed! ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Nick F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been an avid reader of your newsletter for quite some time. My question for you is with respect to a recent article that dealt with problems reading DirectCD discs. The same circumstances ... described in this article reminded me of a problem I had a while ago when I backed up some files onto a CD-RW disc prior to formatting my system. After Windows was reinstalled and we reloaded all the important software again, I found that I could not open the CD-RW disc -- even using the same program, same disc drive, that had written it. Every time ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Betty S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just finished reading your article which detailed how to sort the Start Menu. My question is somewhat related and deals with the 'Favorites' listed in Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, my ... Favorites list goes on and on and it's a real pain to find the site I want to visit. Could you please tell me how to transfer this list to a CD so I can start over? " My response: If you want to sort and organize your favorites, refer to these articles: Sort favorites in Internet Explorer Organize Favorites in Internet Explorer Organize Favorites ... (view more)