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FAQS!
FACTS! FAX! 334 (08/10/02)
Q
After much huffing and puffing, I have finally discovered
that AOL does not support Outlook Express. This may explain why it has
consistently not worked. I do need a newsreader (ideally Outlook Express) that
I can configure to an ISP, and that works reliably. However, I don't really
want to change my ISP.
Colin Cottell
A
Whilst Outlook Express cannot handle AOL’s proprietary mail
system other email clients can, including Netscape Messenger but there’s
nothing to stop you using Outlook Express with AOL as your ISP. Just log on to
AOL in the usual way and once you are online you can open Outlook Express and
(Internet Explorer) and they will automatically use your AOL connection.
Q
My computer has suddenly become unable to complete a Scan
Disk operation. It stops at cluster 2129 of 1220891 on a thorough scan
and cluster 2137 of 1220891 on an ordinary scan. I use Windows Millennium and
the computer is a Packard Bell, approximately one year old. It appears to work
in every other way with the exceptions that Smart Restore will not allow me to
set dates and a Defrag cannot be completed.
T.W. Williams
A
The scandisk and defrag problems are almost certainly
connected and are almost always caused by programs and applications running in
the background, writing to the disc and forcing them to restart. Windows ME
also has an odd little quirk whereby too many icons in the system tray can
cause problems. A variety of solutions can be found in Microsoft Knowledgebase
(MSKB) article Q222469. You can get to it quickly simply by entering the MSKB
code in Google’s search field (www.google.co.uk),
or the old-fashioned way from the link below:
http://support.microsoft.com/
?scid=kb;en-us;q222469
The inability to set a restore point in Windows ME could be
due to a corrupt Registry entry and once again there’s a helpful article and a
fix in the MSKB, this time at Q303354 or:
http://support.microsoft.com/
?scid=kb;en-us;q303354
Q
I have looked at Boot Camp 208: Freeing Up Disk Space, and
have gone through files as suggested - but am still having space problems. I
do not download pictures, music or play games.
My interest is the stock market (I know -- sad soul) so that
I am frequently looking at financial web sites. I regularly clear out temp
Internet files and history files. But something is eating (gobbling?) my disk
space - any ideas?
I am now regularly getting the low disk space warning. This
then clears some space - only to re-appear two or three days later. As an
example I had 100Mb free a few days ago. I now appear to have 54Mb. What is
eating the memory?
Steve
A
Windows swallows up large chunks of hard disc space with the
‘Virtual Memory’, which it uses to temporarily store files and data. This can
easily grow or shrink by several tens of megabytes in a session and usually
it’s not a problem but with only 100Mb or so of free disc space to play with
your PC is in serious danger of running out of system resources and crashing.
You can try freeing up more space but it’s only putting off the inevitable and
it’s time you installed a second disc drive, or better still start over with a
new and much larger drive. Hard disc drives are cheap – 30 and 40Gb drives are
widely available for less than £50 – and one of these should easily see you PC
through to its retirement.
Q
I regularly back up the important data files on my PC
(Windows XP). My back-up utility does an incremental backup to CD-RW every time I log off from
Windows. No problem here! However, I am unsure of how to back up my
Preferences, Bookmarks and Address Book in Netscape Communicator 4.7. What are
the names & locations of all the Netscape files to be backed up and how do
I put everything back onto a freshly formatted or brand-new hard drive?
David Johnson>
A
It’s all very straightforward and there’s a simple to follow
tutorial at:
http://help.sasknet.com/
browser/backupns.html
Q
I have a Gateway computer installed with Windows 98. I
should be able to (and have in the past) change the clock when it reads the
wrong time. I have accessed the window that has the picture of the clock and
digital time readout in it but none of the functions there work! I know that
the up/down arrows to the right of the digital readout should let me alter the
clock but they don't. Nor does clicking in the digital readout box do anything
(or on the clock face). Nothing becomes highlighted when you are on something
that you should be able to alter. It's really weird. It is as if the
underlying bits you can click on to alter the time/date etc are not there. The
computer clock readout on the bottom right of the screen still works as a
digital clock (though currently about an hour out) and still goes. Have you any
ideas, please, as to what I can do to get the time / date functions to operate
again?
Richard Snow, Baltonsborough, Somerset
A
Unfortunately the Windows clock is not a separate utility
that you can easily uninstall and reinstall since it is tied in with time and
date-stamping files. I suspect the only permanent cure is a complete
reinstallation of Windows, which seems a bit drastic. Instead, why not disable
the clock display (Start > Settings > Taskbar & Start Menu) and
install one of the many shareware and freeware alternatives, which often
provide better functionality. There more than fifty of them at: http://www.fileflash.com/
?action=categories&category=110
Alternatively you should be able to set the clock to the
correct time by resetting the hardware clock in your PC’s BIOS program, which
you can access at boot up by pressing a combination of keys (a message like ‘To
enter setup menu press Ctrl’ or a combination of keys) appears on the screen
immediately after switch on, or consult your PC manual.
Q
I am using Outlook Express and a very large message
(7.5M) has blocked my incoming email. Is there a way I can clear the incoming
message to allow other mail to come in? This has happened several
times. Previously I have had to allow the large message to come in taking
up a lot of on-line time. In this case an error occurs after about half an
hour. I know I can put on a block on certain addresses but it seems too late to
do this once the mail starts coming in.
John Parkes
A
You can view the
contents of your mailbox and delete messages using a free web-based email
viewer like Mail2Web (www.mail2web.com).
Simply enter your email address and password. This is also a handy way of
reading your email messages in an Internet café or on a friend or colleagues PC
when you are away from home
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