FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  437 (19/10/04)

Q

I have just started to experience a problem. My Outlook window has mysteriously disappeared off the right side of the screen and I can’t get it back even if I choose to maximise after right clicking on the button on the bottom toolbar. Any suggestions how to get this back?

Ian Motton, Maidstone Kent

A

You can reposition wayward windows using a simple keyboard shortcut. Press Alt, Spacebar, M in that order and you will be able to move the window using the cursor keys.

Q

I have been trying to copy a series of e-mails to a floppy disk but I can only do so if I copy them individually but as there are about 100 of them this is not really feasible.  When I go to Edit, Select All, the copy icon disappears and will only appear if I select one message at a time.  Is there a way round this?

Mrs. Bernadette Woodland

A

There’s no obvious way to save multiple messages using the OE’s File commands but I do have a simple workaround. In your Inbox highlight the messages that you want to save either singly by holding down the Ctrl key and selecting them one at a time with the mouse, or in blocks by holding down Shift + cursor up/down arrow or Shift + Page up/Page Down. Next right click on a highlighted entry and select ‘Forward as Attachment’. This opens a new message window with all of the selected emails included as attachments, you can then go to File > Save As on the message window menu bar and save the email plus attachments in a location of your choice but be aware that a floppy will only hold 1.4Mb of data and 100 messages, particularly if any of them have attachments, may exceed its capacity.

Q

Is there a way in which digital photos downloaded to a PC can be copied back to the disk in a camera?

Ian Blanchard, via email

A

Yes, but it depends how you transfer images from the camera to the PC. If you use the cable and software that came with your camera this may not be possible. Instead use a memory card ‘reader’, which plugs into one of your PC’s USB sockets. These are widely available from PC components suppliers for around £20, and it’s a good idea to buy a ‘multi-format’ type, in case you later change to a camera that uses a different type of card. When you pop the card into the reader Windows treats it as a removable disc and you can then drag and drop files to and from the card and your PC in Windows Explorer. The only proviso is that any images moved from the PC to the card must go into the same folder as the images shot on the camera and use the same file naming conventions otherwise they may not be recognised by the camera.

Q

I am thinking of buying a new PC and am surprised to find that nowadays many do not include a floppy drive. Shop assistants assure me that this is not a problem as they include a DVD-RW. Is this really true or are there potential problems. I instinctively but without any specific reason feel uncomfortable at the thought of a PC without the trusty floppy.

David Lawrence, via email

A

You can of course buy and fit an internal floppy drive to most recent PCs, and external models are also available that connect via a USB socket but the truth is the floppy is now more or less obsolete due to their inherent fragility, unreliability and miserable 1.4Mb capacity. The floppy has largely been replaced by USB ‘pen drives’ for transferring data between PCs, and they are now available with capacities up to 1Gb. For day-to-day storage of important data and backups CDs and DVDs are a much better bet and these days blank CD-Rs with a capacity of 650 or 700Mb can be bought in bulk for less than 10 pence each. The only remaining justification for floppies was that they could be used to boot an unresponsive PC, using an emergency recovery disc but even that has largely disappeared now that most recent PCs use Windows XP, which can be booted from the Windows installation disc, a recovery CD or a pen drive.   

Q

I am running Windows XP on a Dell computer. After booting up and clicking on 'Start' a screen entitled 'System 32' listing application files appears.  It is very irritating.  I have tried every way I can think to stop it appearing.

David Neale, via email

A

I suspect this is due to a corrupt Registry entry. If you feel up to a spot of tinkering then have a look at Microsoft Knowledgebase article 170086, which you can view by typing the number into Google.

Q

John Gauld (faqs! facts! fax! October 5th) may be interested to know that the 1881 census CDs he mentioned seem to run effectively on Windows XP when version 3 (and presumably later versions) of the Family History Resource Viewer is used rather than version 2 which was originally shipped with the Census CDs.  I obtained Version 3 by purchasing the Mormon Immigration Index from the LDS website - the latest viewer is shipped with the CD.

Peter Preston, via email

A

Thanks to Peter and several other readers who wrote in with details of this facility.