Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Robert G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been a fan of your newsletter for quite some time. Thanks for that! Question: at the end of the day, is it best to log off and keep the computer running and ready for the next time it is used, ... or should I shut it down completely and power off? I've heard different variations on the answer to this age-old question. If I leave it running, the fans are always spinning, which causes wear and tear. What do you think? " My response: Good question! I personally always leave my laptop running 24 hours a day because I'm always using it (I'm ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Don B. writes: " Dear Infopackets Team, I have never made a disk image before. My question is: if I make a complete image backup of my C drive (25Gigabytes large), can I then erase my drive and proceed to restore my image backup? ... Or is disk imaging good only for restoring broken files, but not for doing a complete system restore on a clean drive? I guess I'm a bit confused. What I would like to do is wipe out my hard drive completely, then install Windows XP fresh and all the updates and security software, plus a few program essentials (like MS Office). After doing all of ... (view more)

Recently, Kaspersky Labs detected a new form of spam email which contains an attachment of a password-stealing Trojan horse. The attached malware, which is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's consent, is ... called "Trojan-PSW.Win32.Sinowal.u" (herein referred to as "PSW"). (Source: viruslist.com ) Senior research engineers at Kaspersky Lab refer to PSW as being "the next-generation Trojan." The variant is part of the "Sinowal" family of password stealing Trojans, which is designed to steal usernames and passwords entered ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Les M. writes: " Dear Dennis, In December 2003, I purchased a copy of Windows XP Home Edition as part of an upgrade to my PC (main board, processor, RAM, etc), from a local dealer in the UK. This software cost me over $100.00 US ... dollars. During the subsequent time, I have on several occasions had to format my hard drive and reload Windows, due to otherwise insoluble problems. As you probably already know, every time a fresh copy of Windows XP is reloaded, you are required to activate it online within 30 days. Two or three days ago, I switched on my PC as usual and waited ( ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Rose' Writes: " Dear Dennis, My question for you today is: how can I make my CD ROM Drive available to users logging in with Administrator rights only? Here's the problem: my kid brother shares the family computer, which has ... Windows XP professional installed on it. He likes to play online games (which are installed via the CD ROM drive); unfortunately, the games he plays seem to crashed the system. As such, I've set up a separate user account with 'general' user access and have disabled the network card so that he cannot access the Internet when using the computer. Now, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Cathryn' writes: " Dear Dennis, My computer will not recognize my CD ROM drive (the D drive). For example: when I put a disc into the CD drive, the mouse pointer briefly changes to a CD icon (as it normally does) to tell me -- ... presumably -- that the drive is scanning the disc for its Table Of Contents. However, the CD icon only appears for a split second (when normally it would take a few seconds to read the contents). When I double-click on the D drive to run the CD, it prompts me to 'Please insert disc into Drive D', when in fact there is already a disc in the drive. Can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader "JS" writes: " Dear Dennis, Great job with your newsletter! According to a post at WilderSecurity.com, Acronis True Image 9 build 3633 does not run on Windows 98 SE (Second Edition) machines. Acronis has responded to the issue and ... plans to release a fix in the next update. Please advise your Windows 98 readers of this before they download True Image 9. One last thing: I understand that the True Image 9 (TI9) discount expires tomorrow . Can you arrange to have the Acronis 9 discount apply to the version of TI9 which will support 98SE? I would hate to buy something that I can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Richard D. writes: " Dear Dennis, Can you please tell me if it is possible to disable the Windows Page File [also known as virtual memory or swap file]? I have an especially large amount of RAM inside my PC and as far as I'm ... concerned, I don't need the Windows Page File because I doubt I'd ever run out of available RAM. I've read a number of conflicting reports on the Internet that suggest it is possible to disable the Windows Swap File and that in doing so, my PC performance will be improved. However, I've also read that disabling virtual memory would be dangerous. What do ... (view more)

Microsoft's Office and Word contain a critical security hole that has already been exploited by hackers. According to Panda Software Labs, 1Table.A arrives as seemingly harmless Word document, but unlocks a backdoor Trojan that allows a hacker to ... run code on a victim's computer. Microsoft has released little to no information about the vulnerability affecting Office 2002/2003/XP and Word 2002/2003, but is already under pressure to fix the hole, as hacker attacks are surfacing via the dropper Trojan 1Table.A. If a user runs 1Table.A, it exploits this security problem to release a backdoor ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jill P. writes: " Dear Dennis, I find your articles very interesting and informative. Thanks for that. Question: In the My Documents folder, my music, pictures, etc. are appearing on my husband's screen of Windows XP. I tried to ... make the folder private (with no sharing privileges), but the option is ghosted and won't allow me to choose this feature no matter what I do. How can I make my folders private? " My response: According to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #307286, the folders you wish to remain private must reside in "your user profile (Drive_letter:\Documents and ... (view more)