Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Felix P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a brand new Dell 8400 computer. Whenever I boot the computer, I receive an error message which reads, "Digital Input: cannot display this video mode". I've made numerous calls to Dell, have ... checked my settings, video card drivers, etc, but to no avail. Dell even sent me a new flat panel monitor and a tech came to my house and replaced the video card, but the problem persists. The computer and monitor appear to operate properly. Any suggestions? " My response: The problem you are describing is normal behavior for ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Mike F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just installed MS Office and Windows XP Pro on my machine. When I first launched MS Word, I was asked for a user name. At this point, I didn't want to use my own name and instead used the user ID ... 'XYZ'. I share my documents with others and later found that the documents had the user ID 'XYZ' embedded into the file. I now would now like to change my user ID to my name so that the correct information is reflected. Can you tell me how I can do this? " My response: Load MS Word, then go to Tools -> Options, and look for a tab that ... (view more)

Yesterday , I wrote an article concerning a hidden Administrator account in Windows XP. As we discovered, this poses a significant security risk (especially for XP Home users) because it means that virtually anyone can gain unrestricted local access ... to the machine if the Administrator password is left blank. Side note: The term "remote access" means to control / gain access to a computer which is physically housed in another location (typically over a network, such as the Internet). In a similar respect, gaining "local access" to a computer means to utilize the machine at ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Les M. writes: " Dear Dennis, Firstly, well done and many thanks for a most informative newsletter. Today I am writing you because I have a most annoying and frustrating problem with web pages not displaying properly. I use ... Windows XP (Home Edition), and have recently upgraded to broadband (with AOL 9.0) ... [What is happening is that] web pages are loaded through Internet Explorer with at least a paragraph of garbled HTML code at the top, followed by other odd elements of the page scattered randomly, and sometimes repeated 3 or 4 times down the page. I suspected that ... (view more)

Recall -- In Yesterday's Visitor Feedback, Infopackets Reader Marie B. asked how to enable the administrator user account in Windows XP. " I am the only user of my computer which has Windows XP installed. How do I sign into my computer as the ... 'administrator', rather than as my individual name? I understand that administration access is required to make certain changes to Windows. I don't need to adjust anything at this time, but would like to know how to do this in the future (just in case). " In my response to Marie, I suggested that the administrator user account name was disabled ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Tina D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am greatly anticipating the release of your Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation guide. According to my Automatic Updates, Service Pack 2 has already been downloaded onto my machine but not yet ... installed. I am iffy about installing SP2 largely because I have heard that it may not be compatible with some programs. Have you released the guide yet? Did I miss the announcement? I've checked your newsletter archive page but don't see anything pertaining to the release. " My response: As of this moment, the guide is 85% complete. I ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Marie B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am the only user of my computer which has Windows XP installed. How do I sign into my computer as the 'administrator', rather than as my individual name? I understand that administration access is ... required to make certain changes to Windows. I don't need to adjust anything at this time, but would like to know how to do this in the future (just in case). " My response: As far as I understand, the "administrator" account name is disabled under Windows XP for security reasons. For example: imagine how easy it would be for ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jean T. asks, " How can I change the print color when printing a web page? Some web sites use color and I would like to print in black because black ink is cheaper to maintain. " My response: Defining the print color or print mode ... is usually done at the time of printing the page. Each "print option" window is different for every user because it is the print driver which defines the options available to you at the time of printing a page. And, it is the printer manufacturer that defines how the print driver operates. The next time you go to print a page, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jim L. writes: " Although only two and a half years old, my hard drive is starting to make very strange noises, especially at startup, which sometimes dissipate after having run for a while, but not always. I'm extremely concerned ... that if I don't transfer everything to a new hard drive soon that I will loose it all. I remember that you had recommended a program that would allow easy transfer of data from one hard drive to the other. Will this program transfer my OS (Windows 2000 & Office 2000) and personal data as well? My hard drive is portioned into C and D ... (view more)

Recall -- Last week I posted an article in which Infopackets Reader Ron H. asked for alternative solutions to using a PC mouse. Ron wrote: " I recently had a stroke which has left me paralyzed on the right side of my body. As a result, I am now ... unable to use the computer mouse with any degree of accuracy. I was wondering if you or any of your Readers could recommend a product that I can use to help me navigate my computer in place of the mouse. I am currently typing this email to you with the aid of Dragon NaturallySpeaking , which inputs words on the screen using my voice. Any ... (view more)