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Q. I finally got up-to-speed from my old dial-up connection to SBC Yahoo DSL. I didn't know what I was missing ... Gadzooks, it's fast. Anyhow, now when I start Win98SE (boot up or restart), I'm prompted to "Enter your network password for Microsoft Networking." There's probably a simple fix to skip this annoying step, but I can't find it.A. Click START
Go to SETTINGS
Click CONTROL PANEL
Double-Click the NETWORK Icon
Click the CONFIGURATION tab
Under PRIMARY NETWORK LOGON Choose WINDOWS LOGON
Click OK
You will be prompted to RESTART
Click NO
Double-Click the PASSWORDS Icon
Choose the USER PROFILES tab
Click the "radio button" next to the option "ALL USERS OF THIS PC USE THE SAME SETTINGS AND DESKTOP PREFERENCES"
Now choose the CHANGE PASSWORDS tab
In the CHANGE WINDOWS PASSWORD box:
Type your current Windows password in the OLD PASSWORD box
Leave the NEW PASSWORD box BLANK
Leave the CONFIRM NEW PASSWORD box BLANK
Click OK
Click OK
Click START
Click SHUTDOWN
Click RESTART
Q. I am trying to do some video editing on my CPU (Transferring VHS to DVD) and the process is quite slow. Someone suggested to me that I need to set my HDD to DMA and that will help. How do I check if my HDD is set to DMA?
A. Start/ control panel/ performance and maintenance/ system/ hardware/ device manager/ ide ata/ atapi controllers/ primary ide channel/ advanced setting. The process is kind of slow anyway. You should also make sure there is lots of free space available, no other programs running in the background, defrag from safe mode, etc.
Q. What are some things a person can do to make their hard drive last longer and/or take better care of it? Would deleting unnecessary files help pictures, etc.?
A. What you can do to make your hard drive last longer is to not use it. That may not sound right, but it's true. If you don't use it, it will never wear out. However, you need a hard drive, so not using it is out of the question. Use it infrequently, and for as short a time as possible.
Periodically defrag it. This will make it faster when accessing files, for both reading and writing. Buy more memory for your computer. It's less wear and tear on the hard drive (and faster, too) if the computer doesn't have to swap to the hard drive as often. Cut down on the number of programs that you run in the background, especially programs that access the disk. Periodically vacuum the dust from your case. This is good for all the components, as it helps keep them cooler.
Q. I think leaving my computer on standby after 10 minutes would be appropriate, as I don't think it would go into standby while being used - only after I leave the pc. I read that material would not be saved to disk if there were a power failure but I don't think that is a factor in my case as I leave the machine with no work on it - only a blank screen. Is this better than hibernation, which does not lose material but keeps it as was, but you need to power up to turn it on?
A. Standby turns everything off but RAM, which stores your settings/work, whereas hibernate saves the RAM to the hard drive in compressed form. If you access the computer frequently, and aren't worried about losing some open work, then just use standby.
Q. How do you transfer programs and files from old computer to a new one?
A. Using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in Windows XP. When changing to a new PC, move (physically move) the old hard drive in to the new PC and install it as a second drive. I don't really use the old drive for anything new, but just keep it in the new machine for a while until I'm sure I have all my data moved over to the new drive.
Then when I find I need a file from the old PC, it's a simple drag-and-drop to copy it to the new drive. And it really takes no longer to install the drive, than it does to set up the Ethernet transfer, plus the copying is faster if you have a lot of data.
Of course, I would only recommend this to someone who is familiar and comfortable with installing a hard drive. Sometimes (actually most of the time), if the new hard drive is large, which usually the case, I create a new folder (like "OLD PC") on the NEW hard drive and copy the entire OLD hard drive's contents into this folder. Then I can remove the old drive from the machine and still have all its data available in case I find something I forgot I would need. It's a real pain to have to go back and set up the old PC again. Also, I usually keep the old drive for a while "just in case" of any problem. In addition, the "OLD PC" folder can always be removed later, if you need the space.
You will want to install (from the original CD) the programs in the new PC, not copy them over. Then you can copy the data files to the location where each program accesses them or to your My Documents folder.
Q. I'm running Norton Anti-virus and every morning I wake up to a series of screens that tell me it has blocked two or three versions of "Downloader dot something," and several Trojans. I've noticed that one Trojan always pops up as unrepairable or access denied. This happens daily whether I access the web intentionally or not. I'm already running Ad-aware, SpyBot, Spyblocker, AVG Free, Microsoft Anti-Spyware, and Norton. I try to keep them all updated. What I'm wondering is if the one Trojan it can't fix is continually going out every night and trying to download these viruses? Does this seem plausible, and if so, how do I get rid of it?
A. Finding out which Trojan this is will be the key to fixing your system. It appears that it is the cause. A program cannot repair all of these automatically. They require that system restore be turned off and the infestation removed manually. Let us know which Trojan is the one that is identified by your system so that we may better assist you.
Q. Do they make an adaptor to go from a parallel port to a USB cable? I have a printer that has a USB connection, however the computer I want to use it on only has two USB ports, which are used up. I would like to connect it to the parallel port where my old printer was connected. Is this doable or not?
A. Get a USB hub. This will give you the additional USB ports you need. They make adapters to run parallel to printers off USB ports, but not to run USB printers off parallel ports.
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