Dennis Faas

Bryan F. from Canada writes: " Dear Dennis, I just surfed in and read your article on Kazaa Lite ... RE: '[On] October 16, 2002, [the feature article of] the Gazette proposed the question of whether or not Kazaa (Sharman Networks) implemented some ... sort of bandwidth cap on downloads. ' I use the full version of Kazaa: only recently, I've had problems downloading. I seem to always get the message 'Need more sources', which stops any downloading. I've tried other source searching, but get the same result almost every time. I have tons of files to share and am listed as Superior Being, [so ... (view more)

Side note: Because this Visitor Feedback section deals with computer hardware, both the question and answer are somewhat technical. Even if you're a newbie, you should take the time to read this article: I've done my best to outline and explain the ... techy-terms in simple English. Infopackets Reader John T. writes: " Hi, Dennis! I'm sure hoping for your help, if you have the time and are up for a challenge. When I turned my computer on after the recent massive power outage ... I discovered I no longer had D (CD ROM) drive -- it disappeared from My Computer under Windows ... The rest of the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader S. Doe writes: " I somehow inadvertently deleted Windows 98 'Picture Viewer' from my computer. Windows came pre-installed on my computer and I have all of the discs that came with it, and I think Picture Viewer is there somewhere. ... How do I figure out on which disk I can find it to reinstall that program? None of them list it specifically on the disk. Thanks in advance for your help! " My Response: If your computer came with a pre-installed copy of Windows, there is a good chance that the discs that also came with it may only contain a recovery disk image and will ... (view more)

As per our recent conversations on .DLL Hell (Dynamic Link Libraries), I've dedicated the following Feature Article review and Visitor Feedback sections to further enhance the discussion. If you like reading about the true workings of a computer ... with respect to software and the operating system (I.E. Windows), you'll definitely enjoy this edition of the Gazette, written in Simple English. There's lots of great learning stuff in this article, so stay tuned! -- Have you ever experienced an application or game that ran sluggish -- and wished there was something that you could do to "make it ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bruce W. writes: " I enjoy your newsletter very much and I also have a question. I read with interest your last article on Registry Backup and DLL Hell . In the past, I've found programs on the Internet that I'd really like to ... have (regardless of free or paid) and I've downloaded them to my computer. My question is: sometimes I download a program and it tells me something to the effect 'unable to locate DLL library: installation failure.' Why does this happen with some programs but not others? It's frustrating! " My response: The error message you received isn't ... (view more)

Email viruses and unsolicited messages are a huge pain in the neck. It's bad enough that I receive about 50~100 bogus messages a day, but it's even worse when an email worm hits the 'net. The last virus to hit my Inbox was the SoBig email worm back ... in late August of this year, and it caused major havoc: at one point, I had over 2,000 bogus emails waiting to be downloaded to my Inbox in less than 1.5 days. You may recall that on August 28, I wrote an article on coping with unsolicited messages and email viruses. SoBig Email Worm Virus, Part 2 At the end of this article, I mentioned that the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader David R. writes: " Hi Dennis! A while back, I was playing around with a program and my drive letters somehow got re-assigned. My CD ROM drive (D) became E, and E became F. I am trying to put in a Video input card ... and every ... time I try to do the driver install, the PC says it cannot access drive D. Since Drive D became Drive E, there is no disk in D and thus installation cannot be performed. Is there a way I can reassign the Drive letters or reassign the default CD Rom? I posted this message on the message board at Tech TV and here is the response that I got: ' Do ... (view more)

Today, Anne from Canada told me of a very strange situation with her computer. She writes: " Hi Dennis! I have a question. Sometimes there is an image under the email page, or Internet page, and it has a small eye with a white box and a red X in it. ... It annoys me, and I try to get rid of it, but nothing works. Could this be some sort of Spy, because that's what it reminds me of. It's not always there for long, and then disappears. Any ideas? " My Response: All I can say is: "that's weird!", and maybe you've got some type of Spyware installed on your system? I've never heard ... (view more)

Scorpian548 writes: " I read your review on Window Washer (Gazette, 20030715). Can it also clean Real One Player & Quick Time Player? " My response: Some of you may have missed the review on Window Washer in the Gazette on July 15th. To recap: " ... With web browsers and other applications constantly recording personal tidbits of information -- such as documents and pictures you've viewed, plus web sites recently visited -- maintaining privacy while using your PC can be a daunting task. Webroot's award-winning Window Washer is a comprehensive, simple-to-use utility which ... (view more)

With respect to yesterday's feature article, "SiS KHooker, DownloadWare, and Video Display Trouble?" (Gazette, 20030917), Sarah M. writes: " Dennis, I did some research on my own and found that SiS KHooker.exe is not a homepage hijacker (as far as I ... know). Here is the info on that from the answersthatwork.com task list [URL not given]: ' Khooker (KHooker.exe by Silicon Integrated Systems – SiS): Description: SiS Keyboard Daemon. System Tray utility which gets installed by the drivers of the latter day SiS VGA cards. The utility itself is not of much use in our opinion and may ...<a href="/news/9209/sis-khooker-downloadware-and-video-display-trouble-part-2" class="more-link">view more