Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Darlene M. writes: " Dear Dennis, My hard drive crashed and had to replace it. Unfortunately, the techs did not install any of my old programs onto the hard drive. I don't know much about the computer and I want install my ... programs again. What can you suggest? " My Response: You will need to acquire and reinstall all of your programs (IE: setup.exe / run-time executables) onto your new hard drive. You cannot copy over the old programs and have them run on your new drive: they need to be reinstalled onto Windows. I while back, I wrote an article entitled, "The ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Doug D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I get a lot out of your newsletter and hope you can help me. There are many files listed in my Windows Startup, and some of the names appear more than once. I even have programs listed on my computer ... which no longer exist! How do I remove any unneeded listings? I removed the programs from the register using a RegCleaner, but they are still listed in the Startup. " My Response: I get asked this question quite often, and have commented on it before in the newsletter. The truth is that many of the programs listed in the Startup can be ... (view more)

How do you manage your digital pictures? A few weeks ago, Adriel Tan of E-Book Systems, Inc. sent me an email and asked if I would review a digital photo management program, called FlipAlbum 5 Suite. I thought that this would be a great opportunity ... to explore something new, especially since the software which came with my digital camera does not allow me to share my photos easily with friends. With this in mind, I downloaded and installed FlipAlbum 5 Suite on my machine. Here's what I found: FlipAlbum 5 Suite: a quick list of Features FlipAlbum is a unique software that organizes photos on ... (view more)

I am in aw e. Yesterday, I asked Infopackets Readers to visit freetechmail.org and submit comments about this newsletter. There were a number of entries, but one comment in particular caught my eye (especially the last line). Douwe F. from Kuala ... Lumpur, Malaysia writes: " [What I really like about] The Infopackets Gazette [are the newsletter topics, which are] explained in clear language. Although I am an IT professional, I enjoy reading all the various articles [written by Dennis, and I especially enjoy the] different perspective on issues [which are presented to readers]. I find this ... (view more)

RE: search engines and algorithms One of the determining factors in the way that Google ranks a web site depends on something called link popularity. In fact, Google has patented technology known as "Page Rank", which lists sites based on how many ... other web sites are pointing to it (by the use of web links). For example: Lockergnome has very high link popularity because many other web sites on the Internet are linked to Lockergnome. Essentially, Google considers that: if a web page / site (such as Lockergnome) is regarded by a large number of other web sites, it increases the ... (view more)

I'd like to discuss a security threat which was recently discovered in Internet Explorer. Mike Healan of Spywareinfo.com forwarded an article to me today. The article urges all Windows users to take the necessary precautions to secure their browsers ... from a nasty exploit recently discovered in Internet Explorer. The exploit allows hackers to gain control of a system and execute harmful code. http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/htasploit/ Without further adieu, here is the article by Mike Healan (edited): -- Members of the SWI support forums have uncovered a very nasty flaw in Internet Explorer ... (view more)

Today I received a very interesting question that deals with extracting vocals from a song. Infopackets Reader Lori J. writes: " Dear Dennis, I like reading your newsletter, even though I'm still kind of a computer 'newbie'. Is there a free or low ... cost software application that you know of that removes vocals from songs on CD -- such as for Karaoke? Thanks in advance for your help! " My Response: First, let me say that I know absolutely nothing about this subject. Until I researched the topic on Google, I didn't think this was even possible ... at least, not without knowledge of ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Colette C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows XP Professional and would like to know where I can find some easy-to-understand information about how to install and uninstall Windows XP themes. I'm having trouble try to ... disable the sounds which play when Maximizing and Minimizing a window. What can you suggest? " Side note: A theme for Windows consists of sounds and pictures which encapsulate a subject (for example: sports, art, computers, etc). Events on the PC coincide with particular sound files, such as opening or closing a window, or perhaps shutting ... (view more)

Yesterday's article about Spy Sweeper sparked interest from Readers. I received a few interesting comments and questions which I would like to address. Infopackets Reader David G. asks: " [Was Webroot's] Spy Sweeper made with stolen [database] code ... from either AdAware or Spybot S&D? I could be wrong, but I seem to remember reading something [about] this." My response: The short answer is simply, "No." The software in question is in reference to an article published in the Gazette earlier this year ("Controversy over Lavasoft Ad-aware and SpyBot S&D", ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ray M. asks: " I had a program that allowed me to play piano notes using my keyboard [on my old computer] ... [unfortunately I can't remember the name of the program] ... and would like to install one on my new computer. If you ... can [suggest] a program [which plays piano notes on the keyboard], I would greatly appreciate it. " My response: I didn't know of any piano programs off of the top of my head, so I searched Google and came across a site which provided an extensive list of shareware piano programs. http://pianoeducation.org/pnodsoft.html#IBM Many of the ... (view more)