Freeware is software for which there is no charge. It is not "shareware" that you can try for free but are expected to pay for eventually. WinZip is unusual in that it is not freeware, but can be used forever without paying. You just have to put up with a "nag" window every time you open it unless you pay for it.

Programs I install on my new system are:
Irfanview, a graphics viewer;
rjhExtensions, a program that adds choices to the right-click menu;
Adobe Acrobat Reader, allows viewing .pdf file contents;
metapad, a Notepad replacement;
CNotepad, a Notepad alternative that includes spell-checking;
eCleaner for removing unwanted characters and line feeds from text;
Belarc Advisor and AIDA32, are programs that show many details about my system;
Tardis95, a program that sets the computer clock to match an atomic reference;
RegCleaner, a program that cleans junk from the Registry (I use RegClean, but it is said to not be compatible with newer Windows programs);
Netscape Communicator, a web browser and e-mail program plus other features (I use version 4.79 - may upgrade when I get a faster system);
Ad-aware, for spyware removal;
Karen's Alarm Clock, to remind me of certain events;
Supplemental Text Converters for Word 97, to allow Word to open certain types of files not in its normal repertoire.

I have a bunch of other programs installed that are rarely used.

Although not installed on my computer I use Yahoo services that are also free: e-mail and their Briefcase (not to be confused with the Windows Briefcase). The e-mail service is a backup in case my ISP's service is unavailable, is an address I can expose to possible spamming, and is available from any Internet access device. The Briefcase allows me to exchange files between computers.

Metapad is my most-used program. A tap of the F12 key opens it and a right-click on a file puts it one click away for opening a file. I know there are many other free Notepad alternatives but for creation of text files, it serves my purposes. When finished with the creation I use CNotepad to check spelling. And when copying text from a source that includes unwanted punctuation I pass it through eCleaner (opened by a tap of the F10 key) before pasting. I do not use this program for printouts - I use Wordpad for that, because it has Print Preview, choices of fonts, and other formatting alternatives. Metapad can serve just as well as Notepad as a filter to eliminate hidden content (word processors like MS Word can include all sorts of hidden info in the file).

Also a right-click away is IrfanView for viewing the content of graphic files. It has a long list of file types it can open and can Save As (convert to) many file types. I create my own icons using Paint, and convert them to valid icon-type files with it.

rjhExtensions solves some problems for people who want to get a listing of files in a folder, record the path to a file or folder, make sure a deleted file is unrecoverable, and encrypt a file to prevent snooping.

If I had a spam problem I would try SpamWeasel, and I am planning to try Ulead Photo Explorer 6.0 (http://www.ulead.com/pex/freeware.htm) for photo editing.

Do you use any free programs? If so, would you send me the name of the program, what it does, and where it can be obtained? I'll pass the info along.

Credit Card Safety

Q. I have read many times that it is safe to send a credit card number over the Internet. But the idea still worries me. Why is it safe?

A. Modern browsers use an encryption technique, known as 128-bit, to encode sensitive information. The technique is considered unbreakable, for all practical purposes.

Say you're doing business with an online store. Information is passed between your browser and the store's computer. Anything sensitive is encrypted. Keys, or ciphers, are used by the store to decrypt the information.

Crooks would love to decipher this information. But computers today are not powerful enough to break 128-bit encryption. That will change in the future, of course. New encryption techniques will have to be developed.

How do you get 128-bit encryption? Use the latest
browsers: Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6,
(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp) and Netscape 6.2.3 (http://wp.netscape.com/computing/download/index.html).

You can tell when your browser is sending encrypted information. The lock on the bottom toolbar will be closed. And the address will begin with "https," rather than "http."

You are also protected by the way the data is sent. It is broken into tiny pieces, called packets. The packets join billions of other packets in traversing the Internet. When they get to their destination, they are reassembled.

Theoretically, a computer expert could intercept the packets and assemble them. But they would still have to be decoded.

The Komando Theory of Criminality holds that most crooks are stupid and/or lazy. Your credit card number is much more likely to be stolen at the gas station than over the Internet.

Slow Computer
www.komando.com

Q. I have a four-year-old computer and Windows 98. Lately the computer has slowed down and I get that blue screen about the computer being busy, or something. Do I need a new computer?

A. Bill, it sounds like Windows needs a good colonic. A four-year-old installation probably is gummed up with digital trash. That would account for the slowness and the blue screen of death.

I recommend that you reinstall Windows. Reinstall other applications too, if you still have the installation disks. The problem is probably in the Registry. Most likely, it has an accumulation of things left over from four years of installing and removing programs.

First thing, back up your personal data. A backup will save you lots of grief if something goes wrong on the reinstallation. Also, save any shareware programs for which you don't have disks.

You may have a disk from the computer manufacturer that restores Windows to its original pristine self. That will do the job.

If instead you have a full Windows disk, reinstall Windows over itself. However, that may not cure your problem. If it doesn't, you might want to reformat the hard drive. That will wipe the hard drive clean, but will destroy any data on the drive.

You'll need a startup disk to reformat. If you don't have one, use Windows to create it. In Control Panel, double click Add/Remove Programs. Select the Startup Disk tab. After making the disk, copy
Format.com from C:\Windows\Command to it.

Boot with the Startup disk in drive A:. Select "Start computer with CD-ROM support."
At the A: prompt, enter "format C: /s" (without the quotes). You'll get a doomsday message about wiping your data out. Enter yes. When you finish, reinstall Windows, your applications and your data.
You'll probably spend a few evenings getting all your settings back in order. Also, get the latest updates on Windows at:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

As for needing a new computer, your Windows machine will do, but at age 4, it's getting long of tooth. You'd find a new computer much faster. I recently built a computer with a 2.8-gigahertz Pentium 4 chip. It replaced a four-year-old 333MHz Celeron. The difference is startling, especially surfing the Web.

Ticking Sounds
www.worldstart.com

Q: Help! My computer just started making a strange sound when I turn it on. It sounds like rapid ticking or rattling (not hard drive sounds either) and goes away after a few minutes. Any ideas?

A: Sounds like a problem with one of your fans.

Your computer probably has two internal fans - one that sits on top of the CPU and one inside your power supply. Most of the time the sound you're describing comes from the fan in the power supply. Note they can make that annoying noise for a long time before they finally belly up and die.

However, if it's your CPU fan, you may have a serious issue. If that puppy dies, your CPU can turn to toast in a hurry. So, the best advice is to wait till your computer is completely cooled off and remove the case cover. Turn the computer on and see if you can determine where the sound is coming from. If it's the CPU fan, that'll need replaced.

If it's the power supply fan, you'll need to replace the entire power supply to get rid of the noise. If you think you're going to open the power supply and fix the fan - don't. They're not "user serviceable." Besides, if you touch one of its capacitors on accident you'll take a nice little flight across the room.

You may want to listen to your hard drive, too (it's the square, slim box looking thingy). The sound described in the question above probably isn't hard drive related, but it's always a good idea to give it a quick listen.

Remember, most of the time these power supply fans still work for years after they start rattling, so usually there's no rush - just keep a close eye on it. If that fan dies, your computer can overheat in a hurry.

Oh, after you're done playing with your machines innards, be sure to put the cover back on. Believe it or not, your computer can overheat with the cover off. The computer is designed to pull air through the case in a certain pattern. If there's no cover, the airflow is all wrong and things don't cool as they should.

Set your default printer
smartcomputing.com

If you have more than one printer, select the one you use most often as your default printer. That way, your programs will print to your default printer automatically unless you tell them otherwise. To set your default printer, open your Start menu, select Settings, and choose Printers. Right-click the icon of the printer you want to make the default, and then select Set As Default from the pop-up menu.

Share A URL?
smartcomputing

Read the fine print of a Web site’s privacy policy and marvel at how little it actually promises. "We will never reveal your private details with any third parties, except our affiliates, business partners, and anybody else who buys them from us." Now remember that whenever you feel like sharing online content, such as news articles, with your friends by email. Never type your friend’s email address into any fields labeled "Send To A Friend!" because the site may sell your friend’s address to spammers. Instead, select and copy the article’s URL (uniform resource locator) and paste it into an email message to your friend.

Outlook Express 4/5/6
www.smartcomputing.com

You should be aware of the potential to lose any changes you make to Outlook Express attachments. Let’s say you double-click an attachment, spend five hours editing it, and click File Save several times. The next day you open your attachment, and all of the changes are gone. Outlook Express saves edited attachments to a Temporary folder (which is purged when Outlook Express closes), so when you exit Outlook Express, it will wipe out your edited document. To avoid such a catastrophe, immediately select Save As and save your attachment to your hard drive before editing it.

Windows Media Player 7 & 8
www.smartcomputing.com

If you’re fond of ripping music from your audio CDs and listening from your hard drive, you might want to disable Personal Rights Management in Windows Media Player 7 & 8. Click Options from the Tools menu and clear the checkbox from the Use Personal Rights Management (Protect Content in Windows Media 8) checkbox. With Personal Rights Management disabled, you can transfer your digital tunes to other systems, listen to music across your home network, and more easily back up and restore your digital music files.

Times are tough in the dot-com world. It’s harder to find free online services, such as email, and the remaining providers, such as Hotmail and Yahoo!, have set stricter rules. One of Hotmail’s rules caps storage for free accounts at 2MB. Another deletes accounts that no one has accessed in 30 days. We suggest you occasionally move messages you want to keep to a word processor document saved elsewhere. If you have a file attachments in your inbox, save them to a new folder along with your document.

ICQ Welcome Screen
www.smartcomputing.com

Normally, when you log into ICQ, a Welcome screen pops up containing some useful information with a little advertising mixed in. If you’d prefer to not have to close the Welcome screen as soon as it pops up, disable it. Click the Main button in the lower-right corner of the ICQ window and select Preferences. Clear the checkbox next to Show The "Welcome To ICQ" Screen When Launching ICQ. Click OK to apply the change and permanently disable the Welcome screen.

Digital Cameras
www.smartcomputing.com

You may have noticed that digital camera specification sheets often list two values for the sensor pixels. For instance, Casio QV-4000 has 4.13 megapixels (3.76 megapixels effective). Which of those numbers is important to you? In this case, the first number means that the camera’s sensor contains 4,130,000 pixels. The number you’re interested in, though, is the effective megapixels, 3.76 (or 3,760,000 pixels).This number refers to those pixels that contain a light-sensitive diode that detects light and produces a corresponding charge. The QV-4000’s remaining 370,000 pixels perform other functions, such as carrying the charge across the sensor.

1. Install reliable Antivirus software. It's the most important step you can take towards keeping your computer clean of viruses. Norton AntiVirus is the world's leading antivirus software. It runs continuously in the background of your computer, providing constant protection from viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and other malicious code. To stay up-to-date on the latest online threats, Norton AntiVirus can automatically update its virus definitions whenever you're online.

2. Scan all incoming email attachments. Be sure to run each attachment you plan to open through an Antivirus check. Do this even if you recognize and
trust the sender. As mentioned above, malicious code, like Trojan horses, can slip into your system by appearing to be from a friendly source.

3. Don't open questionable attachments. Many viruses are spread through email attachments that look like they are coming from a friend. First, be sure your email program doesn't automatically download attachments. This will ensure that you can examine and scan attachments before they run. (Refer to your email program's safety options or preferences menu for instructions.) Second, before you open an attachment, consider the source. Does the friend you received the email from often send you attachments? If the email seems out of the ordinary, or the message seems too generic for your friend to have sent it to you, it may contain a virus.

4. Get immediate protection. If your antivirus software doesn't already do so, configure it to boot automatically on start-up and run at all times. This will provide you back-up protection in case you forget to scan an attachment, or decide not to.

5. Update your Antivirus software frequently. An antivirus program is only as good as the frequency with which it is updated. New viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are born daily, and variations of them can slip by software that is not current. Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security can both be set to search for new virus definitions every time you go online, so you are always up to date.
6. Don't download programs from the Web. Unreliable sources such as Internet newsgroups or Web sites that you haven't heard of may be willing providers of viruses for your computer. Avoid downloading files you can't be sure are safe. This includes freeware, screensavers, games, and any other executable program - any files with an ".exe" or ".com" extension, such as "coolgame.exe." If you
do download from the Internet, be sure to scan each program before running it. When downloading multiple files, save all downloads to one folder, then run a virus check on everything in the folder before using it.

7. Don't boot from a floppy disk. Floppies are one of the most common ways viruses are transmitted. If you are using a floppy while working on your computer, remove it when you shut the machine off or the computer will automatically try to boot from the floppy, perhaps launching a virus on the disk.

8. Scan floppies before using them. If you must share floppies between friends or with more than one computer, always scan them before using them. You could easily pick up a virus from an insecure network and introduce it into your system. Running a virus scan before launching any programs or files on the disk will prevent infection.

9. Don't share floppies. Even a well-meaning friend may unknowingly pass along a virus, Trojan horse, or worm. Label your floppies clearly so you know
they're yours and don't loan them out.

10. Use common sense. It's always better to err on the side of safety. If you're unsure about an attachment, delete it. Especially if it's from a source you don't recognize.

Customize Sounds
www.komando.com

Q. Kim: I like the sound of my dog's bark. Can I make Fluffy's bark sound off when I get an error message? Also, how do I get my own screams into the computer?

A. Cheryl, I think you need to get out of the house more. :) Anyway, getting sounds into the computer is pretty simple, assuming you have a microphone and a sound card. And once you get those sounds inside your computer, you can associate them to different system events like opening a program, starting Windows, errors and more! Here's how to do it:

In Windows 98:--Click Start >> Programs >> Accessories >> Entertainment >>Sound Recorder

--Click File >> New--Click the red dot and start recording--When finished recording, click the black box

--Click File and Save as--Save file anywhere you please--Close Sound Recorder

--Click Start >> Settings >> Control Panel--Double click Sounds--Click once on an event, highlighting it

--In the Sound area, click Browse--Navigate to the file you saved

--Click the file name; click OK; close Control Panel

In Windows XP:

--Click Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> Entertainment>> Sound Recorder

--Record as in Windows 98--Close Sound Recorder--Click Start >> Control Panel

--Double click Sounds and Audio Devices--Select the Sounds tab

--To name your sound scheme, click Save As.--Click once on an event; click the Browse button

--Navigate to the saved file and click it once

Cookies
howstuffworks.com
Question
I have heard about "cookies" and know they have something to do with my Internet browser. I also know that I can block cookies with some settings. What are cookies and why would I want to block them?
Answer
Cookies have, for some reason, gained a rather sinister image. But they really are simple and harmless. (Note that this question became so popular that HowStuffWorks now has a complete article on cookies.)
A cookie is just one or more pieces of information stored as text strings on your machine. A web server sends you a cookie and the browser stores it. The browser then returns the cookie to the server the next time the page is referenced.

The most common use of a cookie is to store a user ID. For example, the cookie might containing the following string: ID=96352398

Amazon.com is one site that uses this technique. When you order a book, you fill out a form with your name and address. Amazon assigns you an ID, stores your information with that ID in its database on the server, and sends the ID to your browser as a cookie. Your browser stores the ID on your hard disk. The next time you go to Amazon, the ID is sent back to the server. The server looks you up by your ID and customizes the web page it sends back to you. The page might say, "Welcome back, Joe Smith!"
You may be wondering:
Is there any more to cookies than that? No. They are simply text strings. On my machine there is a directory called c:\windows\cookies that contains all of the cookies. They are little text files -- you can open them up and see the strings that are being saved.
Are cookies harmful? No. They are just short text strings, and they can often make browsing better by allowing a server to recall any customized information you have set.
Are cookies common? Yes. There are over 500 separate cookies on my hard disk.
Can cookies transmit computer viruses? No. They are just text strings.
Can a company read my personal information from my hard disk with a cookie? No. Only the cookie that is sent in the first place is returned to the server. It is not modified or manipulated in any way. LSCS

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