Thanks, Tim. I did see the piece, but either they mismeasured, or their definition of what constitutes a "significant" change differs from mine.

I can see how that might happen. For example, if you compare the performance of a fragmented drive to a defragged one over the course of a full day, the defragged drive's time savings might not seem to add up to all that much (maybe a couple minutes). One could argue that that isn't a "significant" improvement. But to me, having a PC that feels snappier, more responsive and less "in the way" all day long, is indeed significant. I'll take a defragged drive any day.

And sometimes, the defrag differences are actually quite dramatic. See next item.

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3) ...and Yea

Sometimes, defragging makes a *huge* difference:

Hi Fred. On the article in the newsletter on defragging ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-01-22.htm#3 ),
I completely agree that PC World are dead wrong.  I use chat programs a fair bit as well as surfing the net and in the past have noticed that my internet connection (dial-up) would progressively deteriorate until it became unstable. Once I had defragged though I would be back at full speed both on chat programs and normal surfing.
 
And this degradation used to occur once my defragged level went below 97%.  Since then I have regularly defragged at least once a week and have found not only does my internet connection work better but both games and applications I use as well ---Robert Mitchell, Queensland, Australia

You're probably seeing fragmentation problems with the internet cache, Robert. By default, Internet Explorer sets aside a huge cache for itself. That alone can cause performance issues, but if that huge cache ends up scattered all over a fragmented drive, your PC will thrash itself senseless trying to manage the cache as you surf.

The solution is twofold. First, defragging will help, as you've seen, because the cache will be all in one easy-to-access piece. But you also can reduce the raw size of the cache: In IE, go to Tools/Internet options and in the "Temporary Internet Files" area use the Settings button to make the cache something reasonable. (Other browsers have similar settings.) For dial up systems, 20 or 25MB is usually enough cache. For always-on, high-speed connections, 10MB or so is all you need.

Keeping the cache reasonably sized, and then keeping it contiguous (defragged), should eliminate virtually all cache-related performance problems.

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4) Freeware Resource

Fred, Searching for a font printing program today for a friend, I came across BlueFive Software. It has handful of useful looking free programs.  The font program is only one I downloaded and it worked as advertised. http://bluefive.pair.com ---Mark Stout

Thanks, Mark. Even better, that site also had links to two other nice freeware locations: http://freewarearena.org/PHPNuke/index.php  and
http://www.nobucksfreeware.com/

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5) Teleport

Fred, I get a lot out of your newsletter, and have an item to suggest that I don't think is mentioned on your site yet.

This is software that allows you to download websites, either subsets or the whole thing. There have been times where I was glad I did this, because the site went away and it would have been difficult to recreate the information, graphics, etc. The product I use is Teleport Pro (shareware), from Tennyson Maxwell. Website: http://www.tenmax.com/teleport/pro/home.htm

The trial version limits the size of the site you can fetch, but the limit is pretty generous. (I have no ties to the company except that I happened to find Teleport a couple of years ago, and use it.) --- Paul Perkal

Thanks, Paul. I used to do more "offline browsing"  of web sites when I was doing a lot of business travel. For example, it can be very handy to snarf down an entire web site while you have a fast connection, and read it later when you're not online.

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6) Recommend This Newsletter And Win!

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, maybe a friend would find it useful too! Just use the following link to recommend the LangaList---your friend may find a new source of useful information and you just may win one of three FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the LangaList Plus! edition given each month. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus! subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.)

Check out the details at http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm . Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck!

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7) Proceed, But With Caution

Fred, I ran across this cool site the other day & thought you might want to mention it in your newsletter. It's called Autopatcher, and is located at http://www.autopatcher.com . It is used to bring an XP system up to date with all of the latest post SP1 patches. It also includes many extras such as registry tweaks, power tools, etc. I am a plus subscriber & I always find something useful in every edition! Keep up the good work! --- Brian H. Stovall

It looks interesting, Brian, thanks. The Autopatcher download sites were mostly offline when I visited, and those that worked were incredibly slow for the huge 200MB+ Autopatcher download. Much slower, in fact, than WindowsUpdate itself. But maybe I just caught it on a bad day.

It does put a lot of extra items, including some nice little tweaks, right at your fingertips, selectable by simply clicking on menus. That's good.

But there's a potential problem because the supplied patches are several steps removed from the Microsoft site. Low-level OS patches sometimes require that you disable or ignore your antivirus tools while the patch installs, so an OS patch is a nearly perfect trojan vehicle for hostile code. If a cracker were to subvert the AutoPatcher site or its mirrors by inserting a malicious payload into the patch, you could end up wreaking all kinds of havoc on your system.

If AutoPatcher ends up as a fast and secure alternative to WindowsUpdate, it could be a good thing. But I'm going to stick with WindowsUpdate for now, so I'll know that the patches I apply are the real thing.

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8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming...

Well over three thousand 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

WGH Woodworking
http://www.wghwoodworking.com/

"Faith Collapsing"
http://surge.ods.org/index.htm

Spain Photo
http://www.golfo.ca/

Vintage Car Collection
http://www.vintagecarconnection.com

Derek and Heather
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/derekandheather/Index.html

Windows XP Central
http://groups.msn.com/windowsxpcentral

"Clean Portal"
http://www.newnan.cc/

Jeff Wilson's Web site
http://s92531243.onlinehome.us/

"Well-Chosen Words"
http://home.comcast.net/~m.herr/

Free Javascript Tool
http://jstmm.netfirms.com/

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--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) ---

"Fred, Thank you for all the articles and especially for the LangaList Archives... I had a virus that just kept coming back, even though it was supposedly eradicated. I was pulling my hair out for a solution. I didn't want to re-format and start over, as even a back-up may have had the virus!! [The article with the fix] was found with a quick archives search and the words of wisdom cured my computer headache. Regards, Dave Fullerton"

Glad you found it useful, Dave. The Plus! Archives are offered free
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9) Restore The Display Control Icon

Hi Fred, I enjoy and love your consistent work in your newsletters. Keep going!

I really miss a nice feature of old faithful Win95/98: the useful icon you could put in the taskbar to change screen resolutions on the fly. Now you have to right click on the desktop, choose Properties and then Settings to get that. I have to change resolutions many times during a session at the PC. I'm sure that there must be some smart guy around, who got to put the necessary commands together into an easy to use program. Do you know something like this? Searching Microsoft's database didn't help.

My video card is an NVidia GeForce4 MX 420. Windows XP Home as OS. ---
Roberto at Florida

Some OEM versions of video drivers omit the taskbar icon/applet, but you usually can restore it. With most nVidia- based cards, it's easy:

Go to Display/Properties/Settings/Advanced. Look for the Geforce tab; there's usually a "display settings icon on the taskbar" in there somewhere. (It's under "troubleshooting" in my version of the nVidia control applet). Presto--- your display control icon is back, and you have instant access to many of the advanced features of the nVidia software right from the desktop.

But if the above doesn't work, you may have a limited version of the drivers. Go to http://www.nvidia.com and download the current drivers for your card; follow the installation instructions, and then try the above again. Odds are, you'll now find you have access to the display control icon.

The specific details may vary for other brands of video card, but the basic concept's the same: You usually can get the control icon back by using a full, new install of the drivers from the card vendors' site.

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10) Just For Grins

This is wonderful stuff:

Fred-- The oldest technical manual in the English language.
http://art-bin.com/art/oastro.html Share and enjoy! -- Paul Dellechiaie

It's a hands-on, how-to piece: "A Tretis [Treatise] on the Astrelabie [Astrolabe]" written by Geoffrey Chaucer, in approx. 1391; it's addressed to "Lyte Lowys" ("little Lewis"), whom Chaucer was trying to assist.

Some things haven't changed much. I just got a new PC. Its manual starts:

"The following pages display the front and back of your computer. Use these illustrations to become familiar with your PC and its connectors..."

What Chaucer wrote, 600 years ago, wasn't very different:

"The firste partie of this tretys shal reherse the figures and the membres of thyn Astrelabie by cause that thou shalt have the gretter knowing of thyn owne instrument...."

Wonderful find, Paul, thanks!

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• New Subscription Option!
      (AVOIDS PROBLEMS WITH SPAM FILTERS AND BLACKLISTS!)

• Freeware Proxy Server
     (share your internet connection easily)

• Remote Power-Off For Wireless Node
     (turn it on/off from anywhere in the house or office)

Plus! edition subscribers not only get much more content in every issue (like the above), but also have access to a private web site with over 100,000 words of special content and features not found in *any* issue of the newsletter; along with dozens of private downloads and much more--- all for just $1 per month!

Check out: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

(Want to give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition?
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

See you next issue!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win a prize!)

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