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Please note: Older issues may contain information that is now out of date. How To Subscribe
and Unsubscribe is at the end of this note. Mailing List Trouble? See http://www.langa.com/help.txt Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000 !) An easier-to
read formatted HTML version of this newsletter is available on line at The LangaList 2000-08-31 Special Double Issue! A Free Email
Newsletter from Fred
Langa --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
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the above is an advertisement )--------------
Within 24 hours of posting the
brand-new (and free!) versions of CleanUp.Bat on Monday, over 30,000 people
downloaded at least one of the files! I can't imagine how much disk space was
freed up in the aggregate, but maybe we'll all be responsible for a tiny
downtick in hard drive sales in coming months. 8-) If you don't have the latest copy of
CleanUp.Bat yet, grab it at http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm
. (And please click an ad banner while you're there to help defray my costs for
the bandwidth---Thnx!) To my surprise, not many people have
downloaded reader Mick Hickson's way-cool Reg patch that adds CleanUp.Bat to
your Recycle Bin's menus. I don't know why; it's very cool! You can check it out
at http://www.langa.com/cleanup_reg.htm
. The full article on disk cleanup (at
http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/18.htm
) also is generating a ton of email, and some good reader comment in the BBS
area attached to that article. I'll highlight several of the most interesting
responses in the next items, below. Click to
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Some people looked at the
"expert" version of Cleanup.Bat and were alarmed by unfamiliar terms
such as %WINDIR%, %TMP% and %TEMP%. These are system-wide variables; the paired
"%" signs signify the start and end of the variable, and the letters
in between are the variable name. WINDIR is the home directory of
Windows. In most cases, it's "C:\Windows." Indeed, the
"novice" version of Cleanup.Bat has C:\Windows hard-coded into its
structure. That makes the file easy for humans to understand, but obviously,
will only work if in fact your copy of Windows lives in C:\Windows. But Windows can be installed on any
drive and in any directory, even in a nonstandard name/location such as
"H:\ThatOperatingSystemFromBillGates." Clearly, any file that tries to
work on Windows files in the standard C:\Windows location will fail if Windows
actually lives in some other location. But when Windows installs itself, it
creates a WINDIR variable that points to its home location, wherever that may
be. Thus, a program can use WINDIR to locate where Windows lives. And the
"expert" version of CleanUp.Bat uses WINDIR: It should be able to find
Windows no matter where it lives. You can find out what *your* WINDIR
variable contains by opening a DOS box and typing ECHO %WINDIR% The system will repeat or
"echo" the contents of WINDIR on your screen, printing it on the next
line of text. In most cases, it will be C:\Windows, but if your copy of Windows
resides elsewhere--- even in H:\ThatOperatingSystemFromBillGates--- then that's
what you'll see. It's the same with TMP and TEMP, two
names for temporary file areas. They have standard locations, but sometimes can
be placed elsewhere. If you open a DOS box and type ECHO %TMP% you'll see where
the TMP directory is on your system. Likewise, ECHO %TEMP% will show you where
the TEMP directory is. Click to
email this item to a friend The Cleanup.Bat files were written
for Win98--- the most commonly-used OS among LangaList readers. But it can be
adapted for almost any OS, especially by using some of the system variables
mentioned above to locate system and temp file areas. NT and Win2K also don't come with
Deltree, but you can fake it by using the standard DEL command. For example,
Leland Hamilton, a Senior Software Engineer in Massachusetts, suggests that
instead of this Win98 line: deltree /y %temp%\ you might use something like this in
NT and Win2K: del /s/f/q %temp%\*.* What's more, reader Stuart Dyckhoff,
a Senior LAN engineer in the UK, suggests using IIRC %1 as an argument so that
the USERID can be be automatically obtained to expedite cleaning files out of
NT's temporary area found at \winnt\profiles\USERID\local settings\temporary
internet files You get the idea: CleanUp.Bat is
really a kind of template. It works as-is on most standard installations of
Windows 98, but can be adapted to almost any OS and location through judicious
editing and a little cleverness. We'll have more on this when we
return to the subject of batch files in an upcoming column. Stay tuned! (And
meanwhile, thank Leland and Stuart!) Click to
email this item to a friend A number of readers have suggested
various scripts, freeware and commercial software tools that do a good job of
cleaning up junk files on your hard drive. They work, but there are several
reasons why I presented CleanUp.Bat: First and foremost, CleanUp.Bat is
an outgrowth of a series of articles on emergency system repair, restoration and
recovery OUTSIDE of Windows, in DOS. Batch files can run even if Windows is
totally dead. Second, batch files are tiny---
Cleanup.Bat is a 1K file, for example, while the smallest cleanup Winapp I've
seen is about 800K. You easily can put Cleanup.Bat on a boot floppy, but you
can't fit most Windows-based cleanup tools on a floppy; and besides, they need
Windows to run them. And then there's cost. For example,
reader Brian Hazeltine used two commercial apps on his system before letting
Cleanup.Bat go to work, and here's what he reports: Dear Fred, I've enjoyed
your newsletter for several months now, but this is the first time I've written.
I ran Fast & Safe Cleanup and cleaned out Orphan files using Cleansweep
before running the Cleanup.bat. Wow. I cleaned out another 38megs. Quite
impressive! Another popular cleanup app,
"Window Washer," costs $30. I tested that one myself: First I ran the initial free cleanup
steps described in the article at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/18.htm
, up to and including running CleanUp.Bat. The system already was pretty clean,
so I didn't gain a huge amount--- about 6 megabytes of space. Then I ran Window
Washer, accepted the defaults, and let it do what it wanted to do. Do you know
what extra space that $30 commercial app found? All of 40 kilobytes. Whoopee. In
fact, since Windows Washer itself occupies well over a megabyte, you can even
view this as a net *loss* of space. OK, I'm being too harsh: Window
Washer isn't a bad app; if you run it *instead* of using the free tools and
methods we've discussed, it does a good job of cleaning things up. But the point
of Cleanup.Bat is to show how small and powerful batch files can be; they don't
require Windows to run, and they're free! It's hard to beat that. Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) ---
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the above is an advertisement )--------------
Exactly a hundred years ago, in
1900, the then-new Kodak company introduced a camera so simple to use that
"even a child" could take acceptable pictures: It was a
cardboard-and-wood device that could be sold, at a profit, for a dollar. To
market it to children, Kodak named it after little fictional characters created
by Canadian author Palmer Cox. These characters--- called
"Brownies"--- were all the rage with turn-of-the-century kids."
(See http://members.aol.com/Chuck02178/brownie.htm
)
The Kodak Brownie line eventually
ran for 80 years comprising about 100 different camera models, including a line
of movie cameras that began in 1951. (Amazingly, some photographers are still
using Brownies today, and producing beautiful photos. See http://members.aol.com/chuckgif/brownie/gallery.htm
.)
The Brownie line went a long way
toward democratizing photography, but the process still required chemicals and
special papers. But in the last two decades since the Brownie line went dead, an
amazing revolution--- based on cheap solid-state hardware and powerful software
compression techniques--- has taken place. Today, even a child can make
acceptable *digital movies,* and built-in software in Windows Millennium and the
new Apple computers ensure that the necessary software tools will be widely
distributed. There's lots more to to the story,
and odds are that it will affect you personally--- whether for your use of
streaming video feeds, MP3 music, home or professional movies, or whatnot. Come
check out the details at http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20000822S0001
! Click to
email this item to a friend It sounds like a joke, but it's
true: Although not in wide distribution, the "Pokey.Worm" (also called
Pokemon, I-Worm.Pikachu, Pokey.bat, Pokey) arrives as an email with the subject
"Pikachu Pokemon." And to further entice the young ones, there's a
embedded small graphic of Pikachu. The text of the email's body reads
something like Great Friend! And there's an attachment called
pikachupokemon.exe that tries to delete system files. It also re-sends itself to
others in the address book of the recipient. It's a clumsy and fairly stupid
worm--- for example, it triggers an "are you sure...?" prompt before
it deletes anything, so you'd have to explictly *let* it do its dirty work. But kids could be fooled. If you
haven't already, this might be a great time to discuss online email security
with your kids. Click to
email this item to a friend To have a shot at winning, just use
the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may
find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and
you just may win a book! (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 The more times you make a
recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning! Or, if you'd like to try to win
$10,000(!), try this link (full details also available here): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1 Either way, thank you, and good
luck! Click to
email this item to a friend Uh, oh. Microsoft says: Microsoft has released a
patch that eliminates a security vulnerability in Microsoft Money. The
vulnerability could allow a malicious user to obtain the password of a Money
data file.... The vulnerability only affects Money data stored on the user's
local computer - it does not affect the security of Money's online services in
any way. Moreover, a malicious user would need to gain physical access to an
affected file in order to exploit the vulnerability - it could not be exploited
remotely. It's important to note that password protection in Money is not
intended to be a substitute for file-level access control, and even in the
absence of this vulnerability, customers need to protect such files. FAQ/More Info: The patch is available via Money's
"Update Internet Information" feature: 1. Click Tools/Update Internet
Information. Click to
email this item to a friend Hundreds and hundreds of sites now
have "Loaded The Code." Do you have a home page or website? (It
doesn't matter what size.) Please click on over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm,
and maybe you can join the growing crowd! And check out http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm,
which is a permanent repository for "code loader" pages. It's kinda
fun to see what your fellow readers are up to! There's even a "Reader Site
Roulette" link that shows you a new Reader Site with every click! Speaking of which: Here's another
eclectic selection of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal: Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) --- Computer
Problems? Get
answers from some of the same sources Fred uses Information/Order
(and discounts!) here: http://www.langa.com/books.htm --------------(
the above is an advertisement )--------------
Reader Lee Boozer writes: Fred, recently, you've
covered some handy system utilities. As a computer systems developer, I
sometimes run across a machine with hard to diagnose DLL conflicts. A handy
shareware utility I've been using for years is "DLL Master." It makes
it easy to find out what DLL's are running, where they were loaded from, and
what programs are using them. Definitely a "must have" in my
professional bag of tricks... In case you want to take a
look at it, here's the URL Thanks, Lee. Indeed, it's a nifty
tools for discovering what's running and "what's connected to what."
The download is fully-functional, but if you like and keep the tool, please do
what the nag screens suggest and send in your $25. Click to
email this item to a friend I can't attest to whether or not
these really exist, but supposedly, these are for-real bumper stickers: Click to
email this item to a friend --- ( Your
Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) --- You're
reading this--- so do over 1,000,000 others each month! Have
YOUR product or service seen See http://www.langa.com/ratecard.htm --------------(
the above is an advertisement )--------------
Monday, Sept 5th is Labor Day, a
national holiday in the U.S. (See http://www.dol.gov/dol/opa/public/aboutdol/laborday.htm
) Because of the holiday, the next issue of the LangaList will be published a
week from today, on September 7th. See you then! Click to
email this item to a friend Best, Please recommend
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the advertisers: Langa Consulting LLC will never knowingly accept
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Abbreviated version: The tips and other information given in the newsletter are
researched and are believed to be accurate, but we cannot and do not guarantee
that all the information here will work on all systems, for all users, all the
time. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind.
Neither Langa Consulting LLC, nor its employees nor contributors are responsible for
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