FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  613 (20/05/08)

Q. Every so often my PC gets into a download that can be pretty big, but I can't work out which program has started it. AdAware and Spybot both report nothing wrong, and AVG 7.5 seems happy, too. How can I find out what is causing the downloads and stop them if I don't want or need them?

David Thompson, via email

A. That, in a nutshell, is what a proper firewall is for, and I don’t mean the one included with XP and Vista, which only protects your PC against incoming hack attacks (though the latter can be made more functional – see http://tinyurl.com/6n8rc4).

A decent firewall alerts you the first time a program on your computer tries to access the Internet, you can then decide whether or not to grant permission, so it won’t bother you again. A good firewall should also maintain a list of ‘trusted’ applications and a log of what they’ve been up to. There are plenty of Firewalls to choose from but I suggest you start off with one of the freebies and both Comodo and the venerable Zone Alarm are a very good place to start. Download links to the two programs can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/2fqoyk

Q. I have installed Stopzilla on my PC as I had picked up some spyware and malware. Is this a trustworthy product or should I delete it and install something else? If so what is recommended?

Steve Morrel, via email

A. It’s actually bit late to start asking if a program is safe or not after it has been installed. As it happens Stopzilla has a decent enough reputation, for a paid-for program, but it could just have easily been one of the many bogus anti-spyware and malware cleaners sloshing around the web. Some of them report false positives in an attempt to scare you into buying a product, or worse, infect your PC then hold you to ransom until you pay for a removal tool.

In future I suggest that at the very least you Google the name of any program that you are not sure about, followed by the word ‘problem’ and see what that turns up. For malware cleaners and anti-spyware products you should go to the excellent spywarewarrior.com website, which maintains an up to date list of scam and Scareware products. You might also like to check out the freeware alternatives, some of which do as good a job as their commercial cousins. There’s a selection on the Software page at www.pctoptips.co.uk

Q. I have some HD films on my laptop but there is no HDMI port to connect it to my HD TV.  If I try to use the TV as a monitor the maximum resolution is 1280 x 768 (as the laptop).  How can I play these HD films on my TV?

Norman Buxton, vie email

A. In short you can’t, at least not in full HD quality, and that’s even if you have the real McCoy and not a ‘HD-Ready’ TV, which is incapable of displaying a full 1080-line HD picture in all of its glory. Without an HDMI port there’s no way of getting the HD digital data out of the PC. USB ports are simply not fast enough; theoretically a FireWire port has the capacity but it is a proprietary system and as far as I’m aware there is no conversion route, which leaves you with the standard VGA monitor socket. VGA is an analogue signal format, so straight away there’s a significant reduction in picture quality from native HD and as you have discovered, your PC’s graphics adaptor governs resolution. The bottom line is that you are going to have to compromise on picture quality, or buy a new laptop.

Q. I have for some years been happily running Microsoft Outlook 2003 but recently it has almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown. Outlook appeared to be working normally but it eventually became clear that for some time my outgoing e-mails had not been reaching their destinations, causing no end of havoc with my work. My email provider has finally concluded that my Outlook software has become corrupted. Can you tell me whether there is a safe way to reinstall Outlook? 

David Shaw, via email

A. It’s not difficult, and like most programs the easiest way to do it is from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel (or Program and Features in Vista’s Control Panel). Your email messages, preferences and settings will all be preserved and restored when you re-load Outlook from your Office installation disc.

However, I am a little suspicious about your ISP’s diagnosis and it sounds to me like a fob-off solution. Outlook, like any piece of software is prone to corruption but I have not come across such a specific fault before. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred outgoing email problems are due to a wrongly configured SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) address or a block imposed by an over-aggressive security program.

Before you uninstall Outlook see what happens when you switch off or temporarily disable your Firewall and antivirus programs. You can usually do this by right clicking on the relevant icons in the System Tray (next to the clock). If you can’t disable it, and on some of these programs the email scanning components are deeply embedded, the only solution is to uninstall it. If that doesn’t fix it then by all means try reinstalling Outlook.

Q. Could you please tell me if MS Office 2000 Small Business software is compatible with Vista Home Premium Edition, Service Pack 1?

E J Simms, via email

A. Yes it is, with some provisos. There are a few relatively minor bugs but most of them are fixed by installing Office 2003 Service Pack 3. There is still a problem with the Office Assistant and a memory error message but there is a workaround for that as well on Microsoft Tech David Overton’s blog site.

If you have a computer problem write to: fff@telegraph.co.uk

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© R. Maybury 2008 2904