FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  489 (29/11/05)

Q.

I have just transferred to Thunderbird from OE (on Boot Camp’s advice) and I have it running all the time but I would rather have the icon in the System Tray (next to the clock) rather than on the Taskbar. It’s far too easy to close it by mistake with the icon there. Is this possible, and to have it notify me when emails arrive? MSN Messenger manages this, is this because it is part of the Microsoft family?

Matthew Pounds, via email

A.

You are not alone in wanting this facility and what’s more you are spoilt for choice with solutions. Here are three freeware utilities to be getting on with: ThunderTray, Thunderbird Trayand MinimizeToTray; the latter also works with Firefox, Mozilla Suite and our favourite Open Source web editing program Nvu, which you will find in the Freeware and Shareware Archive

Q

Due to a family bereavement we have inherited a Dell laptop and are unable to use, as we do not know the password.

Leonard Porter, via email

A

I think it is fair to assume that if the deceased set up a password lock on the laptop they did so to preserve the security of the data or information it contains. Unless there are any special circumstances I would urge you to respect their privacy and use the PC’s recovery or installation discs to wipe the drive and start afresh.

If you absolutely must gain access to the PC then it is no secret that there are many and various ways to read files on a locked PC or crack the XP Login password. The simplest thing to do is use a service like LoginRecovery, (http://www.loginrecovery.com/). This involves downloading a small file onto a floppy disc, loading it into the locked PC and running a small program. This generates a file, which is then uploaded to the company (on another PC) for decryption and recovery of the original password. The service is free (it can take up to 48 hours) or for a modest £10 fee the file can be processed in around ten minutes.

Q.

I have been busy transferring my CDs to my PC’s hard drive so I can play them on my MP3 player. Now I have quite a collection stored on my PC and I would like to get a printout of the entire library. They are saved in folders in the format of artist album and track. I was wondering if it is possible under Windows or is there a program that will print the folders in an expanded tree format so I can see what I have in my collection?

S. Harden, via email

A.

If you just want a printout of the Windows Explorer directory tree and folders view then you can do a screen grab by pressing the PrtScn key, open Windows Paint or MS Word, press Ctrl + V to Paste the image, resize as required then print that.

For a more comprehensive file and folder listing look no further than our old friend RJH Extensions. This freeware utility adds a Directory Printing function to Windows Explorer right-click Context menu. It can be configured to print all Details, Sub Folders or Folders only. You will also find that it adds other useful facilities to Windows Explorer, including file encryption and shredding.

Q

I have recently installed a new motherboard and processor and everything is working fine except that I am frequently unable to open bookmarks or desktop shortcuts at the first attempt. Usually the second or third attempt works, but not always. This problem does not occur all the time, and not always to the same shortcuts, and is worse on some days more than others. I use both Firefox and IE6 and the problem happens on both browsers. This problem never happened before I changed the processor and motherboard, and the shortcuts were exported to floppy and imported so have not changed. I assume that a setting needs to be changed somewhere; can you suggest anything?

Chris Mancrief, Worcester

A

That’s really odd! Assuming that you’ve haven’t re-installed Windows then I can think of no reason why changing the motherboard should affect the accessibility of desktop shortcuts and bookmarks. I suppose there could be a problem with the mouse interface, but this would have a global effect on all mouse actions like menu selection and dragging and dropping. The only thing I can suggest is check your mouse settings in Control Panel, in particular the ‘double-click speed’. If your mouse came with its own driver I would uninstall and reinstall that and it might be worth visiting the motherboard and mouse manufacturer’s web site to see if there’s an updated driver or FAQ, which might indicate a compatibility problem somewhere down the line. I would also try another mouse to see if that’s also affected but I’m barrel scraping now so if anyone has any bright ideas please let me know.

Q.

You recently stated in your column that there are only slight differences between DVD+R and DVD-R discs. I recently bought a Daewoo DVD recorder and VCR, which will only allow me to record using DVD+R discs, but I am able to play DVD-R discs. Could you tell me the reason for this?

Cliff Martin, via email

A

That’s because the aim of any DVD recorder, whether designed for DVD-R or DVD-R discs, is to produce a finished or ‘finalised’ disc that conforms to the basic DVD technical standards so that it can be read on any recent DVD player. The differences, such as they are, are to do with the way the recorder organises and processes data prior to ‘burning’ the disc. There are also some minor variations in the optical characteristics of the two types of disc, and those of the rewritable DVD-RW discs but many recent players can compensate for these and so should be able to play any type of finalised disc.

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© R. Maybury 2005, 2211