FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  249 (08/02/01)

Q

Last year, you gave a web site for Spider, to clean up unwanted cookies etc.  I have been using this with great effect, but now need to download it again. Where would I find it?

Keith Downie

A.

Definitely an address worth remembering and see Boot Camp 132. Spider is a little program that deletes a number of 'secret' protected files in Windows 9x, that keeps a detailed record of your Internet Activities. Spider can be found at:

http://www.fsm.nl/ward/

Q

Recently a member of my family tried to send a collage of images from his new digital camera. The file occupied 4Mb and jammed my inbox, which the ISP had to clear! So I looked at my own scanned photo files and I have Bitmap, JPEG and TIF file types, and I don't know how I achieved the differences. The question is how does one specify file type?

John Orchard

A

Normally you can choose the file format when you name and save an image. On the standard Windows Save and Save As dialogue boxes -- used by virtually all scanner and digital camera imaging software -- there is a 'Save As Type' field showing the default for the type of image. Click on the down arrow at the end of the box and list will appear details all of the file types supported by the program.

Q

I bought a Packard Bell computer some three months ago. Every time I power up I get a screen inviting me to register, and the system stops loading till I have responded. There is an option to register now or later, but no option not to register - and I don't want to. I object to being bludgeoned over the head with this every time. How do I remove it?
M Fraser

A.

Messages that appear when a PC boots up are almost always triggered by a shortcut stored in the Start-Up folder. To see what's there, and if necessary remove the offending item, go to Start > Programs Start-Up, highlight anything you want to get rid of and press Delete. The registration message could also be initiated in a system file or by the Windows Registry. If you are using Windows 98 or ME go to Run on the Start menu and type 'msconfig' (without the inverted commas) and select the Startup tab and if it's there, deselect it.

Q

When I put CDs into the CD-ROM drive they will no longer start automatically. Each time I have to go into Windows Explorer and run the CD from the drive. This occurs when installing new software and also when playing music. Is there a way of restoring the Autorun facility?

Arthur Claxton

A

To enable Autorun right-click on My Computer and select Properties, then the Device Manager tab. Click the plus sign next to CD-ROM, right click on your drive, select Properties and the Setting tab and make sure the box next to 'Auto Insert Notification' is checked. Autorun can be disabled by new software installed on your PC, CD player programs are frequent offenders, if you've loaded one recently check to see if it has an option to play an audio CD when it is loaded.

Q
I have a 3-year old Gateway PII 233MHz, 64Mb running Windows 95 that is starting to have trouble running the latest software releases. Is it worth my while upgrading e.g. memory, video, operating system etc or is it time to pension the poor old thing off?
Pete Heller

A

It depends what you mean by the latest software. Your PC's specification is more than adequate for 90 percent of applications, including the latest office suites and even demanding imaging software, but it will struggle with graphics intensive games and things like video editing programs. Windows 95 is probably slowing things down so at the very least upgrade to Windows 98, however I would stay clear of Windows ME as it runs best on 500MHz and faster processors. Adding another 64Mb of RAM wouldn't hurt either, and memory is quite cheap at the moment.

Q

I have a Compaq Presario 1245.  I tried to load a game from a CD-ROM but an error message prompted me to change the colour mode to 250 colours.  I went to the Control Panel and Display and Settings but the only options for colours I have are 2 and 16.  I've studied my handbooks, etc, but cannot discover how to get up to 250 setting. Can you suggest a remedy?

Charles Carmichael

A

You may have an incorrect or corrupt video driver installed on your machine. To find out right click on My Computer, select Properties then the Device Manager tab. If there's an exclamation mark next to Display Adaptors you need to reinstall the driver, which you can do from the Add New Hardware Wizard in Control Panel (have your Windows CD-ROM and driver disc ready). Otherwise try re-installing the existing driver by right clicking on the Display Adaptor entry, choose Properties, then the Driver tab and click on the Update Driver button and follow the instructions.

Q

Is it possible to change case in Outlook Express with a quick-key method, in email, as you can in Word?  Sometimes I type lines in upper case in oversight, and can't use shift+ F3 as I can in Word.

Janet Robson

A

I'm not aware of a change case command in Outlook Express, which has only very limited word processing facilities. Why not compose your messages in Word then simply copy and paste the text into the new message window?

Q

Thanks for the tips about disabling programs in Windows 98 from the 'msconfig' file (F!F!F! January 25): it worked perfectly. I then followed the advice given earlier in the reply for exiting programs on another computer running Windows 95: highlighting them in the Close program dialog box etc, but a couple of them also had originally small icons in the system tray on the taskbar, which have now disappeared.  How do you get them back again? Trying to drag a shortcut from the desktop doesn't work; I have re-booted a number of times; and so far Windows Help has failed to provide an answer. 

H Hartley

You probably have an early version 4 of Internet Explorer on your Windows 95 PC, in which case you will have to install an extra component called Windows Desktop Update. The easiest way to do this is open Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, select the Internet Explorer entry, click Add/Remove and then in the box that appears, click on 'Add Windows Desktop Update component from Web site'. This will open Internet Explorer, which will dial up and log onto the Microsoft web site, then follow the instructions. Upgrading to a later version of Internet Explorer might also work, though before you do read the Microsoft Knowledgebase article at: http://support.microsoft.com/ support/kb/articles/Q165/6/95.ASP