FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 165 (10/06/99)

IDENTITY CRISIS

When booting up my computer has suddenly starting displaying the following message: 'A device file that is specified in SYSTEM INI is damaged… you may need to run the Windows set-up program, press a key to continue'. Unfortunately I cannot reload my copy of Windows 95 since, although I have the CD-ROM, it requires a product identification number. This was attached to the manual, which I can no longer find.

John Lyon, Welwyn, Hertfordshire

A

Software identity numbers are recorded in the registry and they are quite easy to find. Click the Start button and select Run, in the empty field type 'regedit' and then OK and the Registry Editor window will appear. From now on it's a case of look, but do not touch! Click on the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then the plus signs next to: Software, Microsoft, and Windows and double-click on Current Version, in the right hand window you will see an entry called Productkey and next to it your Windows identity number.

WASTEFUL SAVER?

My sister recently told me that using a screen saver tied up a lot of RAM. Is that the case? If so are they really necessary or just a gimmick and do they use up that memory even when they are not in use because you are utilising the keyboard or the mouse. Is the potential damage to your screen overstated and does the same potential exist for the new flat screens. When downloading from the net should the screen saver be turned off first to conserve memory and hopefully speed up the process?
Derek Adams

A

Screen savers only use memory resources when they are actually running, which is not a problem since the PC is idle. Windows power management schemes have made screen-burn much less of a problem, but it can still happen if a bright static image is left on the screen for hours on end, however this doesn't affect flat panel LCD screens. Disabling your screen saver won't make a jot of difference to Internet download times. 

HEALTH MONITOR

I use the energy saving function on my PC to switch my monitor off after 10 minutes of inactivity. I wonder if potential savings would be more than offset if the monitor needed replacing due to the constant switching on and off.

Lawrence Welham

A

PC monitors are surprisingly robust and most will usually outlast the PCs they're supplied with, so you needn't worry too much about premature ageing. Energy saving systems reduce the strain on critical components, such as the picture tube and power supply, even so if your monitor is being switched on and off more than three or four times a day, say, then you should increase the delay time or adjust your working patterns.

CHAT STOP
We have the Internet at school and it is supposed to be for reference only, however, everyone uses it for chat lines. Is there any way to deny access to certain sites? It would make our lives so much easier.
Fiona Goddard

A

Utilities such as Cyber Patrol and Wiz Guard can lock out specified sites. They can be downloaded (along with other parent/teacher Internet access control programs), from: www.tucows.com

SYMBOL SOLUTIONS

A simple way to produce a degree sign in Word, (F!F!F! May 27) is to use the superscript facility. Ctrl+Shift+Equals sign sets the facility. The letter "o" produces a degree sign. Ctrl+Shift restores normal characters.
John R Monson, Stokesley, Middlesbrough

As a translator, I often have occasion to use accented characters. Years ago, when I used Word Perfect, I was able to make up shortcuts such as Ctrl e = é, etc. Now that I use WordPro and Word 7, these are no longer available. So what I have done is to make up the table (see below), and fixed it to the lower edge of my monitor. Simply select Num lock, press and hold the Alt key then enter the numbers on the numeric keypad. You will find that after a very short time, you will remember the ones you use frequently, and typing speed is not significantly affected. The table below contains all you need for French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Other characters for Scandinavian and other languages can easily be added.

Acute               Grave               Circumflex        Umlaut 
á 160               à 133               â 131               ä 132  
é 130               è 138               ê 138               ë 137
í 161                ì 141                î 140                ï 139 
ó 162               ò 149               ô 147               ö 148
ú 163               ù 151               û 150               ü 129

P. Sheils

I have just found a utility called OfficeToys (www.Officetoys.com). This created a series of Add-Ins to Word, including a means of adding accents to characters by pressing F10. This is the simplest method I have found. Officetoys is Shareware, but free to register.
Adrian Sutton

SOAR POINT

At my gliding club we need to get wider viewing for our flight logging laptop. Is there a device that will adapt the external monitor output into a signal for a TV screen?

Andy Miller

A

It would have been a lot easier if you were using a desktop PC, video cards with TV outputs are available for as little as £25. However, VGA to TV converters for laptops do exist, have a look at 'TV Link' at www.willow.com

RETURN TO SENDER

I have the same problem as Len DesBois (F!F!F! Thurs, May 27). For sometime, I have been receiving other peoples email if they have the same surname as me. I contacted Freeserve, who said this was unavoidable if other people used the same name after the '@' in their address. They offered no solution to this problem. I receive at least 10 emails a week intended for other people with the same surname and it is now getting to be quite irritating.
Waseem Chaudhry

I sent several emails to my cousin (of the same surname as myself) using Freeserve, all of which were lost. I then received an email from another person with the same surname saying they had arrived on his desktop and implying that I had misaddressed them (not so, since at least one was sent as a reply). Several emails were also lost when sent to another acquaintance on Freeserve.
Nigel Cubitt

Freeserve are right in maintaining that there is nothing wrong with their mail system, Mr DesBois has been fortunate. Only one person can have his or her surname after the @ sign, which means that all the other DesBoises have to include an extra letter or number. Freeserve attracts a lot of new users to the Internet who are unaware how sensitive the mail system is to what comes after the @ sign. I receive on average one email a week that has been wrongly addressed. I wonder how many emails the first Mr. Smith gets!
Allan Hook

Somehow we knew this one wasn't going to go away… This is just a small sample of the responses we received to the item on misdirected email, and not all of them from Freeserve users. Condsidering the amount of email whizzing around the Internet we still don't feel it's a major problem but it can be very annoying for those involved. It concerns the use of the non-unique node names – the text after the '@' sign – in an email address. It's the equivalent of the street name in a postal address, and email systems, like the Post Office, sometimes have trouble delivering mail to people with common surnames living in commonly named streets, i.e. Mr Jones, High Street, Newtown. Ideally surnames shouldn't be used as node names, but during the sign-up for a new email account the ISP checks its own database and tells the subscriber that their first choice for a user-name has already been taken and to try an alternative. That’s when surnames can end up being used as node names; email sent to that address may be wrongly routed to other nodes with the same name. There doesn't seem to be a simple solution, other than for email users who messages repeatedly go astray to change their address but if anyone has any other suggestions we'll pass them on.