Encarta Reference Library makes great gift  (12/13/04)

Mindshare a one-stop shopping center

As president of the SW Florida PC User Group, I periodically receive a mailing from Microsoft Mindshare, a support organization for user groups (computer clubs) that provides evaluation software and promotional material.

Obviously, their marketing strategy is to encourage user groups to promote Microsoft products. But as long as I've been associated with Mindshare, I can say without reservation they've never allowed their marketing strategy to interfere with the value of the information and the services they provide.

Mindshare's latest mailing included two items I'd like to share with you. One is Encarta, a software program, the other is a Microsoft Web site.

Encarta 2005 Reference Library Premium is a complete companion to research and the Internet. It's a program I'd recommend to anyone, but one I particularly recommend as a holiday gift for your children or grandchildren.

I realize many believe kids will reject anything on a CD other than an action game. But perhaps if your children or grandchildren were impressed by Ken Jennings' "Jeopardy!" winnings, they just might be enthusiastic about receiving Encarta as a holiday gift.

Seriously. Encarta is an extraordinary source of information with a special zone for children under 12 — "Encarta for Kids." But know the way information is accessed, cross-referenced and when appropriate supported by Discovery Channel videos, it's user-friendly, even for those of us who don't have the computing skills of a 12-year-old.

The Web site Mindshare made me aware of and one that should be high on everyone's list of Favorites is www.windowsmarketplace.com.

It's a one-stop comparison shopping center with more than 93,000 products offered by more than 200 retailers. Microsoft created this extraordinary site to help you select products you can be sure are Windows compatible. And for the frugal — Microsoft has included a section dedicated to hundreds of free Windows-friendly downloads.

With Christmas less than two weeks away, I want to make you aware of a Good Boot Beleaguered Novice alert.

If you're traveling North for the holidays be aware when you return home with memory sticks loaded with priceless photos, you shouldn't carry them through airport security metal detectors, or anywhere near a metal detector body wand. The electromagnetic field they generate has the potential of erasing or corrupting memory sticks.

It's safe, however, to include them in your carry-on luggage scanned by security X-ray machines.

X-rays will not corrupt memory sticks.

For those who asked to be notified, my 2005 Good Boot seminar schedule is available by e-mailing me: fmbigal@embarqmail.com or visiting our Web site: www.swfpcug.org > Complete 2005 meeting list.

Here's wishing you a Good Boot. [index]

Make a New Year's resolution to get organized  (12/20/04)

I'm not sure if making New Year's resolutions is still in vogue. But if so, I'll bet "getting organized" is a Top 10 resolution. In fact, I'll bet whether or not it's a formal New Year's resolution, many Good Booters would like 2005 to be the year they succeeded in becoming at least a bit more organized.

Well, if it be known, until I discovered Microsoft's Outlook (Outlook Express' big brother) and began an amazing "getting organized" adventure, I was a perennial "next year I'll get organized" wannabe.

Now, however, I'm so organized I've ceased suffering from the Alice in Wonderland "I'm Late, I'm Late — For a Very Important Date" syndrome I was experiencing as I advanced into my golden years.

If I had to select two significant reasons even a novice should consider Outlook 2003, they'd be: No. 1 — it provides a one-stop array of user-friendly integrated solutions for managing and organizing e-mail messages, schedules, tasks and contacts. No. 2 — because it does and because most novices visit their e-mail Inbox at least once a day, Outlook doesn't have to be running and "nagging" to ensure they'll remember to check their appointments and "to do's."

Some of the other Outlook features Good Booters might appreciate.

• You can configure Outlook to access, send and receive e-mail messages from multiple accounts to include personal, business and Web-based e-mail (Hotmail and Yahoo) and then view all their e-mail accounts in a single presentation.

• Outlook's Reading Pane, which allows e-mail to be read without opening it, can now be positioned so it will provide a vertical, full screen view of the content of an e-mail without having to scroll though it.

• Instead of keeping all your e-mail messages in your Inbox to remind you of action items, you can use Outlook's Quick Flags to flag messages by priority.

• Outlook can automatically organize your e-mail messages and reminders.

Enhanced Rules and Alerts organize incoming e-mail messages according to your preferences and can automatically trigger alerts to remind you when tasks are due or an appointment is pending.

• A user-friendly Navigation Pane provides expeditious access to your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Folders, Shortcuts and Journal.

• Outlook has a state-of-the-art Spam filter and a reliable backup (with a nag) feature.

• You can import into Outlook your Outlook Express Address Book.

• Outlook can be purchased as a standalone program.

I suggest if you want to keep your 2005 New Year's resolution to get organized, you stash away $100 from your holiday gift-giving budget and treat yourself to this extraordinary personal information manager.

Here's wishing you a Good Boot.  [index]

Make New Year's resolutions to ensure Good Boot  (12/27/04)

I resolve to:

• Install anti-virus and ensure it's automatically updated.

• Ensure my firewall is set.

• Ensure I've installed all Windows Critical Updates.

• Always obey Keller's (Compu-Doctor) 1st Law of Windows and never delete, rename or move any file I didn't put on my system myself with a program's 'Save' or 'Save As' command or receive as e-mail.

• Always keep in mind Microsoft will not e-mail me recommending an update or fix or a Web site to go to for an update or fix.

• Always read disclaimers before I download a program — particularly a free program.

• Always create a Systems Restore Point before installing a new program or making a significant change to my Windows system.

• Always use a qualified technician to set up or repair my computer.


I resolve not to:

• Go to a Web site recommended in an e-mail from my bank, ISP or any other organization suggesting I'll discover important information without first checking the authenticity of the e-mail.

• Open an e-mail attachment or, if I'm an AOL or CompuServe user, ever download an e-mail attachment unless I can answer 'yes' to all of the following four questions:

1. Do I know who the attachment is from?

2. Do I know what the attachment is?

3. Do I know what the attachment does?

4. Did the sender create the attachment? If an attachment is part of a forwarded e-mail, the answer to this question is 'no!'

• Delete my Cookies or Temporary Internet Files

• Purchase a computer that doesn't include a Windows installation CD.

• Allow a technician to install Windows on my computer without providing me with the original installation CD and registration number.

• Invite a computer technician into my home if they don't have a local business license, business insurance and the confidence and trust of the Better Business Bureau.

And finally because by adhering to all my New Years Resolutions I'll be reasonably assured my 2005 computing adventure will be as safe as it can possible be, I'll do my best to set aside my preoccupation with viruses, spam, spyware and Internet bad guys and paranoia over making a possible computing transgression.

Instead, each day I'll enthusiastically fire up the Beast that sits on my desktop and enjoy the opportunity I have to communicate with friends and relatives, or, perhaps, indulge myself in an Internet adventure or a session editing a photo or two. All those things I hoped I'd be able to do when I purchased my computer and became a Good Booter.

Here's wishing you a Good Boot.  [index]

Three handy, free downloads for loyal Good Booters  (1/3/05)

These programs will help you find stuff on hard drive, manipulate image files

I want to dedicate this, my first column of the new year, to all those Good Booters who were so generous to others this past holiday season. So along with my best wishes for a Happy New Year, I'm encouraging you to reward yourself by downloading and enjoying three free extraordinary software programs.

• Google Desktop Search Tool (www.google.com). A desktop search engine designed to provide a full text search of your e-mail, computer files and the Web pages you've visited. It can be configured to search Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Text and Web history. Once configured, Google Desktop will continually create an updated index of searchable information and store it on your computer.

Example. A "Good Boot" desktop search of my computer will locate and index all my Good Boot columns, seminar schedules as well as archived Good Boot e-mail and Web pages, regardless of where they're located on my computer.

• Picasa (www.picasa.com). Another excellent free Google software program. It'll automatically find and organize for viewing all your pictures, including jpeg, tiff, bmp, psd and standard camera movie files. It will do so without relocating the originals.

You can browse through all your pictures and view sideshows of your albums with a click of a button. If you find a photo you'd like to e-mail, you can select the size of the photo you want to send and have Picasa automatically attach it to your e-mail.

• Photo Story 3 for Windows (www.microsoft.com). Photo Story is a frugal person's digital photo editing program. But for many novices it's all they'll need to begin a digital editing adventure.

Photo Story can:

• Create sideshows using your digital photos

• Touch-up, crop and rotate pictures

• Add stunning special effects, soundtracks and your own voice narration to your photo stories

• Personalize your photo stories with titles and captions

• Save a story and then compress its digital photos into a single small file that automatically preserves the quality of the photos. By compressing your digital photo files they become e-mail friendly. Or if you wish, you can burn them to a CD. In either case they can be viewed by family and friends on their computer or TV.

For those of you who may be reluctant to download the free programs I periodically review because you don't have Broadband or a quality dial-up ISP connection, perhaps I can offer an alternative. E-mail me or see me at either of my two seminars this Saturday. I'll arrange to have them burned to a CD and sent to you.

Here's wishing you a Good Boot.   [index]

Cookies can serve useful purposes while browsing  (1/10/05)

The volume of e-mail I received questioning my suggested New Year's resolution — "never delete your cookies" — indicates to me that the growing awareness of spyware has created a growing concern about cookies.

Cookies are very different from spyware. In most cases, cookies aren't something you need to be overly concerned about or need third-party software to monitor.

All browsers support cookies. It's the way Web sites keep track of a specific computer that's requesting its pages. But it seems for many Good Booters the idea of anything or anyone keeping track of their computer activities is unacceptable.

However, unlike malicious spyware designed to wreak havoc on your computer, good little cookies are designed to track legitimate information a Web site needs to know.

For instance:

• If you go to a shopping site the items you've added to your shopping basket must be tracked. This is usually done with a cookie.

• If you visit a site that's a members-only site, your membership information is probably stored in a cookie.

• If you like the convenience of having a site, remember your login information so you don't have to retype it each time you visit the site. It will be a cookie that will provide this convenience.

Browsers recognize two types of cookies.

A session cookie, which stays around only during a particular visit to a Web site. Your browser usually removes session cookies when you close the browser.

A permanent cookie, which can stay around essentially forever. Some Web sites that set permanent cookies can also instruct a browser when to terminate a cookie — an hour, a week, perhaps never.

Cookies are only accessible by the site that set them. Your Amazon cookie can't be stolen by Barnes & Noble to determine what books you bought at Amazon. In most cases the content of a cookie can be translated only by the site that set it.

Some spyware cleaners can detect a particular type of permanent cookie called the tracking cookie. Tracking cookies are often used for general banner advertising. They keep track of which ads you've seen on a particular Web site. The advertiser uses this method of tracking to ensure you receive a variety of different ads and that you get just one pop-up ad when you visit a particular site.

However, if you block tracking cookies and visit a site that uses pop-up ads, you may find you're inundated with pop-ups because the ad network thinks you're a new visitor each time you visit each page of a particular Web site.

Please don't chuck your cookies!

Here's wishing you a Good Boot.   [index]

There are options available to control Internet cookies  (1/17/05)

I expected to receive e-mail challenging last week's cookie article. But I didn't expect to be excoriated because I suggested there were "good cookies." Nor did I realize the extent of the paranoia many Good Booters have concerning cookies and Temporary Internet Files (TIFs).

I'll remind you again, but please keep in mind my February Good Boot seminar will be dedicated to demonstrating everything you need to know to become a "safe, significant surfer on the Internet."

In the meantime, here are some of the options available to you to control your cookies (if you must), the volume of TIFs downloaded to your TIF Folder (if you want) and general browser security.

Open your Internet Explorer and click Tools > Internet Options > Privacy. Read the available cookie options. I suggest you set the slider to medium or medium high if you're a bit paranoid.

I don't recommend setting it to high, and definitely don't block all cookies (by moving the slider all the way up). If you block all cookies, you may not be able to access a Web site that places good cookies, or you may be driven to distraction receiving messages from the Web site trying to place a cookie.

Keep in mind you can always adjust the level of security based on a particular surfing session.

On your way back to the General tab, stop off at Security. I suggest you set the slider for medium security. However, whenever you make an Internet purchase always look for an "s" after "http" in the Address Bar and a little padlock in the lower right of your browser.

In the General settings under Temporary Internet Files, you can click Delete Cookies. But know the only cookies you'll delete will be those placed by a Web site in your TIF Folder.

To see the cookies and TIFs you'll be deleting, click Settings > View Files. Click on a few of the TIF files — particularly the Image files. Surprised?

While you're there, you can set the volume of TIFs downloaded from Web sites. I suggest the volume should reflect your surfing activity. If you're a significant surfer, set the volume as high as it will go.

To view the cookies in your Cookie Folder go to: C:\Documents and Settings\ Owner\ Cookies. Click on them if you're curious about their content.

One last suggestion. Click "Advanced" and insure the "Automatically check for Internet Explorer for updates" box is checked. However, if you're a novice, I suggest you don't experiment with the other options.

Here's wishing you a Good Boot.   [index]

How to give away a computer without personal data  (1/24/05)

Many Good Booters have asked me how, before they donate or discard their computer, they can expunge their hard drive of personal information.

Before I suggest alternatives, I thought it appropriate to provide a novice-friendly explanation of what happens when a file is deleted.

Your hard drive is made up of sectors — the smallest accessible division of a hard drive. Windows stores your files on your hard drive in clusters of sectors. When you delete a file, Windows doesn't actually destroy the contents of that file. Rather it simply unlinks (disassociates) your file from its file directory system, hiding the file but leaving the contents of your file in the disk sectors.

Your data will remain on your hard drive until Windows reclaims those sectors by writing new data onto them. Until the old data is overwritten by Windows and it can take months, even longer for Windows to do so, data can be recovered using recovery software. Forensic software, so called because it's used to obtain evidence in criminal investigations, is an example of recovery software.

Thus the only way to be absolutely sure a deleted file is expunged from your hard drive without reformatting your hard drive is to use third-party software that destroys the contents of a file by overwriting it multiple times with random bytes.

There are many software programs available that will allow you to expunge your hard drive of deleted files. But before you rush to the Internet to purchase one, I recommend the following.

• If you're discarding a computer loaded with information bad guys would enjoy exploiting, the simplest way to sanitize your hard drive other than burning it is to format it.

• If you're donating a computer without any of your programs and files but want Windows to boot, reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows.

• If you're donating a computer with Windows and programs you've installed on it, simply delete your "Stuff" (that which you created yourself using Save or Save As) and then empty your Recycle Bin.

My recommendation is to consider my third alternative first. It's the most practical for two reasons.

No. 1: I'm sure very few Good Booters will be donating a computer to someone who has the inclination and the skill to utilize a third-party recovery software program to recover deleted data.

No. 2: Without intending to be facetious, I doubt many Good Booters have personal information on their discarded computer so revealing or valuable it would encourage someone to first salvage their discarded computer and then invest the time and money necessary to recover deleted data.

Here's wishing you a Good Boot.   [index]

Don't take the bait offered by phishers  (1/31/05)

Wouldn't you know. Just about the time you think your inbox is safe, along comes phishing (rhymes with fishing) — a new bad boy with a rather ingenious new e-mail fraud.

Phishing schemes usually arrive as e-mail spam or pop-up windows. But phishing scams are more than just unsolicited and annoying spam. In fact, they're designed to surreptitiously obtain your credit card numbers, passwords, account information or other personal information by convincing you there's a legitimate reason to give the information to them.

A phishing scam begins with a malicious user sending out millions of fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from popular Web sites or from sites you trust, like your bank or credit card company.

The e-mail messages and the Web sites where they send you look official enough to deceive you into believing they're legitimate. So convincing are many of these e-mails that many of the unsuspecting recipients respond to the e-mail's requests for credit card numbers, passwords, account information or other personal information.

Often, an Internet bad guy will put a link (hyperlinks are usually blue and underlined) in an e-mail that appears to go to a legitimate Web site. In reality, the link will take you to a scammer's site or, perhaps, a pop-up window that looks exactly like the official site.

These Web site forgeries are called "spoofed" Web sites.

When you arrive at a "spoofed" site or access a pop-up window and unwittingly enter personal information, it'll be transmitted directly to the person who created the "spoofed" site. That person can then use this information to purchase goods, apply for a new credit card or steal your identity.

Be careful.

• Never respond to requests for personal information via e-mail. Microsoft and most legitimate businesses will never ask for passwords, credit card numbers or other personal information in an e-mail.

• Always be suspicious of e-mail from your credit card company, bank, online payment service or any Web site with which you do business.

• Don't follow hyperlinks from the e-mail to suspicious Web sites. These links may take you to a "spoofed" site that potentially can send all the information you enter to the bad guy who created the site. Instead, when you receive an e-mail from your credit card company, bank or online payment service, type their URL directly into your address bar.

• Before you enter any personal information on a Web site, always make sure the Web site is using encryption to transmit the information. Look for an "s" after http (https) and a locked padlock in the lower right of Internet Explorer.

Here's wishing you a Good Boot.  [index]

Readers respond over Internet files, cookies  (2/7/05)

Saturday seminars will explain safe surfing

For whatever reason, novices have an extraordinary fascination and paranoia about Temporary Internet Files and cookies. So much so I was inclined not to mention them in my 2005 list of Good Boot New Year's Resolutions for fear of opening a Pandora's box. But I did and it did!

I received more than 200 e-mails with questions and challenges concerning that New Year's resolution and more than 350 e-mails in response to my follow-up articles.

One of the most amusing e-mails was from a Good Booter (I guess) who, in his fourth e-mail, identified himself as an Apple advocate insisting if everyone had a Power Mac G5 there'd be no need for my safety on the Internet articles.

Tongue-in-cheek I replied that I was unaware of a Power Mac G5 iPod.

Be that as it may, I do not use boilerplate e-mail responses, so it'll take a bit more time to get to all your e-mail. But I will.

Unfortunately, e-mail and Good Boot articles cannot demonstrate up close and personal all the tweaks one should apply to Internet Explorer and its e-mail carrier to ensure safety and privacy.

But I'll be doing just that this Saturday at both my morning and afternoon seminars.

If you can spare a couple of hours with me, I'll show you how to tidy your computer, your browser and your e-mail. I'll cover cookies and phishing and everything in between.

And I'll have all the CDs and brochures you'll ever need to become a "Safe, Significant Surfer." For more information, e-mail me at fmbigal@embarqmail.com.

But whether or not you're a seminar person, there are safe computing rules that if adhered to will almost guarantee a safe computing adventure.

And although it might surprise you, there are only a few, and once they're applied you can go about business without having to go through a daily security check

And a bit of common sense will serve you well.