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The LangaList
Special
Edition
2001-08-02
A Free Email Newsletter from
Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware,
Software, and Time Online
Please
visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
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1)
Vacation Time
It's the proverbial "dog days" of
Summer here in New Hampshire. Maybe it's the heat, or maybe it's overwork, (does
the phrase "Type A personality" ring a bell? <g>) but whatever the reason, my
brain is fried. 8-) To recover, I'll be taking a short break with my family.
To catch up with what's in the queue
before I sign off, this issue is a longer than usual. Things will get back to
normal in two weeks with the next scheduled issue, on Aug 20; if there is
important breaking news that can't wait before then, Plus! edition subscribers
may receive an interim bulletin.
But I'm hoping it's a quiet time: I
need to cool my frontal lobes. After all, I tend to agree with Woody Allen's
famous quote about the brain, as cited as the "Quote for Chapter two" in this
online psychology syllabus:
http://tecn.rutgers.edu/principles/Default.htm <g>
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2)
CD-R Wrap-Up
Wow! There were a ton of excellent
reader comments, questions and observations added to the CDR discussion over at
http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa .
For example, reader MattBG offered
this surprising factiod:
I've had *some* of the
cheapest CD I've bought become inaccessible after only 4 months. Perhaps 3 out
of about 25.. they were sitting in a binder for 4 months, unused and gave CRC
errors when I tried to read them.
I test all the CDs after I burn them, so it was a good disc when it went into
storage.
*Any* backups on any medium (tape,
zip drive, floppy, CDR...) can and will eventually go bad in storage. It's
mainly a matter of "how long." And with average life information, you can play
the averages so your backups will last until you might need them. But four
months is *awfully* short
The InformationWeek column talked
about the intrinsic life of the CDR dye (normally 10 to 100 years or so,
depending on type), but other problems can happen--- fungi can eat the dye or
the adhesive; the adhesive can degrade; the foil can oxidize; the plastic disc
can craze or become scratched; etc.
Because *any* backup on *any* medium can go bad, that's yet another reason why
daily backups are so important--- with daily backups, you end up with *multiple*
copies of each important file:
Imagine you create a file called "X.X." With a daily backup regimen, the next
day (we'll call that "day 2") you'll have the live copy of X.X on your hard
drive and one copy in backup. On day 3, you'll have two copies in backup; on day
4, three copies in backup; etc.
For as long as the file remains live on your hard drive, you'll have a number of
backup copies equal to the number of days since the file was created, minus one.
After a year, you could have literally 364 copies of X.X in storage!
So, even if you have a disc--- or a bunch of discs--- go bad in an unusually
short time, odds are you'll still be able to get the file off *some* disc. The
odds of ALL your copies going bad simultaneously are tiny, especially if you
move backup discs to a safe location--- even offsite--- in a timely way.
Daily backup sounds onerous, but,
done right, it only takes minutes, and costs as little as 18 cents. How can you
go wrong?
Check out the rest of the discussion
at
http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa , and, if you missed the
original column that sparked the discussion, it's still available at
http://www.informationweek.com/thisweek/story/IWK20010719S0003?section=opinion
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3)
Driver Woes
Brad Markham ran into an
all-too-common problem when trying to switch operating systems: The drivers he
had that worked for one system didn't work on the other.
I recently purchased a new Dell PC
and decided to partition the 30 Gb hard drive and install a clean copy of
Windows 98 SE. I read through your articles on System Setup from 1999 (
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/1999/0831.htm ) and the
update from 2001:Fred's System Setup Secrets (
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2001/03.htm ). I also
used your advice in creating a custom boot disk. A Bevy Of Boot Disks (
http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/1999/1025.htm )
My problem arose in trying to
identify all of the drivers I need to complete a clean install of Windows 98.
After reviewing the driver information displayed in Device Manager, it appeared
that most of my drivers were from Microsoft. I also had the CD's that came with
my PC for my sound card, monitor, DVD drive, and graphics card. So I went ahead
and backed up my factory install of Windows with Drive Image and reformatted my
C:\ partition. I installed Windows 98 successfully, but found that I could not
change my display settings to anything accept the lowest setting. I pulled out
the CD for my monitor and found that the only driver included was for Windows
NT. When I tried connecting to the Internet to download the display driver I
found that Dell also had not given me a driver for my modem. I used my second PC
to download these drivers. I still have several devices in Device Manager that
display yellow questions marks.
Is there a way to identify all of
the driver files I need to have before I re-install Windows? If there is, I can
put the factory install of Windows back on my C:\ partition and copy these files
to my F:\ partition to use when I install Windows again. Any help you can offer
me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! - Brad
Driver issues can be a real pain
indeed, Brad. Win98 uses one driver type and Win2K uses another. In theory,
WinME can use either or both types, but the real-life practice is sometimes less
elegant than the theory. <g>
To get the right drivers, you have
to know the brand and model of each device in question. With new systems, you
usually get an itemized receipt that lists all components; that might contain
all you need right there. Other times, Device Manager might give you enough
hints to go on. But as a last resort, you may have to open the case and examine
the target components or cards for brand name and model number.
Once you have at least a brand name,
visit the manufacturer's home page. If you don't know the home page, use
Google.Com and search on the brand name; odds are, you'll find the
manufacturer's home page on the first screen of results. Most (but not all)
vendors offer FAQs to help you determine exactly which driver you need, plus a
free download of the appropriate driver.
But if you get stumped,
http://www.driverguide.com/ can help: You have to register (it's free), but
once inside you'll find links to download sites from a huge searchable database
of driver info. And for rare or no-longer-supported drivers, there's a
member-to-member area where people can share the driver they have with others
seeking same.
If you have a working copy of
Windows, it's often helpful to pre-download everything you'll need before your
start a reinstall, and store the drivers in a safe place. That way, you can
install the new drivers right from the start of your new Windows setup.
To repair an existing setup, or to
install new drivers after the fact (say, after a component has been
misidentified and/or had the wrong driver loaded for it), follow the
manufacturer's instructions for correcting the problem, if possible. If there
are no such instructions, use Device Manager's "Remove" function to eliminate
the misinstalled device, and reboot: Use your newly-downloaded, correct drivers
when Windows re-detects the errant devices on restart.
For devices you really can't remove
(such as your video card), use Device Manager to change to a generic Windows
driver. For example, select "Standard PCI Graphics Adapter" instead of the
specific brand. Then, when you reboot, Windows should detect the specific brand
you have and request the drivers, which you can then load.
It's a hassle that should go away
over time, as all versions of Windows converge on the same driver model. But in
the meantime, all of us do the driver shuffle from time to time. 8-)
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4)
WinME/XP/Linux/Mac Questions
I am thinking of buying a new
system, but all of the major manufacturers (and most of the smaller ones) have
been putting WindowsME onto their new offerings. I have been using Win98 since
it came out and have had absolutely no problems doing all of the things that I
need to do routinely with it. I do know some DOS code and have customized my 2
current systems quite a bit. I am concerned about 3 things really:
1. Is WinXP going to be more of the
same we have seen with WinME , that is, no DOS and no ability to get 'under the
hood' and make any adjustments.
2. Is Win98 support going to be
phased out, as MS has done with Win95? If you click on Win98 support at the MS
web site it takes you to WinME and asks rudely if I am "still using Win98" as if
I were using an antique operating system.
3. Is WinXP going to disallow or
limit hardware upgrades on my systems? I have heard something to that effect and
it is a real good reason not to buy WinXP.
All of these are a good reason to
buy something else for an operating system, but what else is there? I am a
little more technically savvy than most non-techie PC users, but I am
intimidated a lot by the thought of having to learn an entirely new set of
commands and terminologies in order to use Linux. I also don't want to buy all
new software in order to use a Macintosh... --- Pete Cedor
1) WinME actually still has DOS;
it's just harder to get at. But XP is more like NT/2K, where there is no
separate DOS subsystem.
2) Microsoft has published its
"Desktop Product Lifecycle Guidelines" at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycleconsumer.asp . In it, you can see
the new support lifetimes Microsoft has established for its products; you can
see when *your* copy of Windows will no longer be supported.. For example, all
support for DOS, Win3.x and Win95 will cease as of this coming January. Win98
and WinNT have a couple years left, but will no longer be supported after June
30th, 2003. And from now on, all new Microsoft products will have a basic three
year life (for full support), followed by a one year "extended" period (with
partial support).
3) XP has an anti-piracy
registration model that's tied to 10 major system hardware components. Once
installed on a system, the same software will have to be re-registered
("reactivated" in Microsoft-speak) if it's cloned to another system or if the
system itself is majorly upgraded. We'll have *lots*more on this in an upcoming
issue.
Linux is an increasingly viable
alternative, although (despite what Linux fans say) it still doesn't support as
much hardware as does Windows 9x, and the software offerings are far more
limited. The Mac is OK and its prices are more reasonable than they were a
couple years ago; the "Apple tax" (the excess charge Apple tacks on, just
because it can) is down to anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred dollars
per system over what you'd pay if Apple allowed competition. Macs work fine and
there's an adequate selection of software, but I still believe that most Mac
users do so more out of inertia and an anti-Microsoft sentiment than from any
really compelling pro-Mac reason.
I still feel Win98SE is the best
general-purpose OS. When I recently bought a new system that came with WinME, I
put ME on an old system, and used the old system's copy of Win98SE on the new
hardware. That way, it's all legal (one OS copy per PC), and I *don't* have to
live with WinME's weirdness on my main system. 8-)
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5)
Big Thumbs-Up For Trend Micro
I work as a computer consultant, and
am retained by a small graduate school in Cambridge, MA. I am preparing to
install network level virus software, but until that happens I have to deal with
significant pockets of vulnerability.
This week, we were hard hit a common
worm/trojan one-two punch. Someone got a little nervous, and called in our
consultants rather than waiting for me (I work *very* part time). I arrived in
the office--repair utilities in hand, asked a few questions and dismissed the
tech. He left me with a mess, and it was clear from the inaccurate answers he
gave me that he didn't know what he was doing, at least in regard to managing
the latest infestations.
Fortunately, Some careful registry
surgery, file repair, and free tools from TrendMicro (
http://www.trend.com ) saved
the day. I also recommend Trend's very fine, clear instructions for dealing with
malware, as well as their Web-based scan tool, which I have prescribed at my
site until the network protection is running.
Thanks for your great newsletter and
the good work you do on behalf of children in need. --- Jackie O'Sullivan
Trend has been around for quite a
while, and is one of those quiet companies that does good stuff without a lot of
fanfare.
Their free tools are at
http://www.antivirus.com/free_tools/ and includes a live, online anti-virus
scan, and a tool to scan for malicious code in Outlook email and attachments.
Their commercial products also have a 30-day free trial, which is nice: A full
month is plenty of time to fully exercise a product and make up your mind about
it.
Thanks, Jackie!
(BTW: Jackie's mention of "helping
children in need" refers to this:
http://www.langa.com/plus2.htm#kids )
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6)
"Drive Manager" Messes Up Partitioning
Some replacement or add-on hard
drives ship with special installation and "BIOS translation" software on a
hidden partition or in special, nonstandard formats on part of the hard drive;
the software normally works behind the scenes, and helps get the new drive
working even on older systems or in cases where the user may have no previous
experience installing a hard drive. That's good.
But the same software can get in the
way of users who want to set things up their own way, or use partition-imaging
software such as Ghost or Drive Image:
Hi Fred, I've subscribed to
the list for a few years now and have enjoyed all the discussions and
recommendations. One that I followed through on and have found to be very useful
(and used) is Drive Image. There have been a couple of times when, after
installing software, that I found my system unusable. Low and behold, a Drive
Image restoration and I was up and running again!
The trouble I now find
myself in is that there is a conflict in my system between Drive Image and Disk
Manager. While trying to install a second hard disk I downloaded and install
Disk Manager 2000 from the IBM website thinking that this would resolve the
"intermittently-seen" new disk by Win98. Well, the problem with the new hard
disk was eventually resolved by installing a new IDE cable... except that Drive
Image refuses to function because of the Disk Manager installation. No problem,
I say, I'll uninstall it and clean all traces of it from my registry. Mission
accomplished... but no, no Drive Image functionality!
Great! I contact Power
Quest and follow through with their recommendations... they inform me that the
Disk Manager signature exceeds the first sector of the first head and that this
causes the conflict. I have done Fdisk and Format and Fdisk /MBR to no avail.
Do you know of a way to
clean a disk so that the "entire" disk is clean? I know that with this overlay
signature on it I cannot continue to use the Drive Image program that I have
relied upon for about a year now. (Ever since your discussions on back-ups,
etc.) --- Eric
I wrote back to Eric and suggested
the following:
A low-level or "factory" format will clean it off... Something like
PartitionMagic (also from PowerQuest) probably also could do it...
Eric soon wrote back:
Fred, I followed up on your suggestion about doing a low-level format. First
I had to find out what it was! I found, on the same IBM website page where I had
downloaded the dreaded Disk Manager, some other very useful utilities which
would perform the zero-write function which serves as a low-level format now. I
ran the Drive Fitness Test and used the erase disk utility. This has worked like
a charm. I have my Drive Image software back up and running, created a new image
and have been bold enough to install RC1 of WinXP on disk 2, Drive D. Although I
now have some hardware problems with XP, I still have my Win98 setup on Drive C
from which I am writing to thank you for your help. I might possibly have
continued stumbling along without ever figuring out how to clean my second disk
and get Drive Image to function again. Regards, Eric
Almost all drive makers offer
utilities on their home pages. If you have intractable drive problems, it's well
worth your time to visit the pages to see what's available. And, as a last
resort, a low-level format (not the standard "Format C:" command, but a special
kind of "deep format" normally done at the factory) just might cure otherwise
incurable problems.
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7)
Fresh Start
It's a new month, and right now your
chances are the best they'll ever be for winning a no-strings $30 Gift
Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware,
kitchenware, toys, and more. 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
mini-shopping spree! (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(really!), try this link (full details also available here):
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182
Either way, thank you, and good
luck!
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8)
Troubleshooting A System Slowdown
Maxine Miller, an officer of the
Villages Computer Club and publisher of a computer help newsletter, wrote:
Dear Fred, One of my Jmax
Bits readers has a problem for which I have no answer. Your help will be
greatly appreciated. The problem:
"Just up dated my computer
to an AMD motherboard 1.2 meghz CPU 256 RAM, Video Card with 32 meg ram
onboard and 22 gig HD. Computer slows to a crawl from time to time. took over 15
minutes to do a spell check on word 2000 today."
There's a long list of possible
reasons for this kind of glacially slow performance, some of them very arcane.
But many times, the problem is easily found and fixed with just these three
suggestions:
1) Manually run scandisk & defrag
the entire hard drive.
2) Turn off Office's background indexing.
3) Make sure no automatic maintenance tasks (virus scans/updates, scandisk.
defrag, etc) are running when you're trying to do useful work; use Task
Scheduler (or your OS's equivalent) to ensure that maintenance tasks only run
when the PC is not is use.
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9)
They Just Keep Coming And Coming and Coming...
Almost 1500 of your fellow readers
have "Loaded the code." Please click over to
http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join them! (If you've
already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on
the Langa.Com web site, please see
http://www.langa.com/link.txt )
Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some
professional, some very personal:
View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm
Manually Browse All
Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm
Only A Brother Would
Make A Site Like This...
http://www.marrymybrother.com/
Quick Links, Free
Software...
http://www.blue.icestorm.net/jscott/index.html
Highthinkers.com -
Home of Elevator Psychology
http://www.geocities.com/deweydeweydewey/
Juanice Barnes
Virtual Art Gallery
http://www.artistnation.com/members/lofts/juanice/
Tancook Island (Nova
Scotia)
http://www.tancook.ca/
Desert Gardening
http://www.commspeed.net/tfcox/
Freeware
Utilities
http://members.home.net/softon2001/SoftOn.htm
Dan O'Neill
Photography
http://dannda.tripod.com/clearwand/
Children's writers and
illustrators
http://www.ourcreativespace.com/
Website Promotion
http://www.kippez.com/
MAXIE'S FAVORITE
THINGS (Rhode Island)
http://home.talkcity.com/MemoryLn/madmax132/index.html
Cyber Designs
http://cyberdesigngal.webjump.com
ginger concepcion art
http://www.gingerconcepcion.com/
Boca Raton
http://www.bocaguide.com/
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10)
More Foistware? (msbb.exe)
Irwin Lentchner got infected with a
program he didn't recognize:
Fred, I started to
get popup ads on my desktop. This happened even if I did not have Internet
Explorer opened (I have a cable connection). If I clicked on the ad I went to
www.247media.com. I do not know how I got it. I am pretty careful about where &
what I download.
I discovered msbb.exe in my
C:\Program Files folder. Also an entry in my Startup list in the System
Configuration Utility. Once removed the ads stopped. Does this have a specific
name & is there anything on it in your archives? (PS: I Enjoy your Plus addition
& am learning a lot.)
I hadn't heard of MSBB either, but a
web search seemed to indicate it's force-fed as part of the DotNow installation,
and does indeed download ads for display on your desktop.
A discussion of MSBB, with removal
instructions, may be found at
http://www.freedomlist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic=2542&forum=1
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11)
Just For Grins
Reader Bradley Munsen says he got
this via a "joke of the day" service:
The 10 Commandments of
Email
Thou shalt include a clear
and specific subject line.
Thou shalt edit any quoted text down to the minimum thou needest.
Thou shalt read thine own message thrice before thou sendest it.
Thou shalt ponder how thy recipient might react to thy message.
Thou shalt check thy spelling and thy grammar.
Thou shalt not curse, flame, spam or USE ALL CAPS.
Thou shalt not forward any chain letter.
Thou shalt not use e-mail for any illegal or unethical purpose.
Thou shalt not rely on the privacy of e-mail, especially from work.
When in doubt, save thy message overnight and reread it in the light of the
dawn.
And, here's the "Golden
Rule" of E-Mail:
That which thou findest hateful to receive, sendest thou not unto others.
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12) Let Your PC Read The Maps;
Customizing Eudora's Filters;
Add Direct Editing Of HTML Email To Outlook
Today's LangaList Plus! Edition
contains all the expanded content above, plus about 30% more content including:
Fred's favorite sites for free trip-planning on the web; an easy way to load
custom Eudora email filters when multiple people use the same PC; and a tip for
advanced users who would like to add direct editing of HTML email to their copy
of Outlook.
Plus! Edition info:
http://www.langa.com/plus.htm
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See you next issue, on August
20th!
Best,
Fred
(fred@langa.com)
Please
recommend
the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)
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