Dennis Faas

Infopackets Reader Han L. from Denmark writes: " Dear Dennis, First of all, thank you for an extremely informative newsletter. I just finished reading yesterday's issue of the Gazette and have a related question about converting VHS video to DVD or ... CD format. Could you possibly enlighten me on how to convert my old 8MM film productions into digital format (such as DVD or CD)? " My response: I get asked this question frequently. I don't own an 8MM film projector, so I can only speculate on how to go about doing this. Basically: in order to convert the 8MM film, you'll need a way to ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently used Windows Movie Maker to create a video compilation. When I was finished editing the project, I clicked the 'send to CD' button, which then launched a Movie Maker Wizard. The wizard ... took me step by step and explained how to convert my project into a Windows Media Audio/Video file and ultimately burn it to CD. I chose to burn the file to CD-R so that I could play it in my DVD player; however, near the end of the burn, Windows Media Maker reported that the project "did not save successfully". After I clicked OK, I ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jim L. writes: " Dear Dennis, You have helped me in the past numerous times and for that I'm thankful. I read all issues and sometimes save those articles that I have a current or potential future need for. In a recent news ... article, I noticed an ad for 'DVDSqueeze', which copies and compresses VHS/DVD video to a CD. Even though they advertise in your newsletter, I haven't seen a review from you on their software. I have quite a few old VHS tapes of miscellaneous TV programs of yesteryear. They are not valuable enough to copy to DVD, but it would be nice if I could put ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John W. writes: " I have a Dell PC and it came with Jasc Paint Shop Pro [picture editor software] installed. After a few months of operation, a screen came up and told me that the trial period for Paint Shop Pro (PSP) had expired. ... I had never used it, so I uninstalled it as PSP cost over $100 to buy the program. After doing this I could no longer open attachments in my Outlook Express. I guess that part of Paint Shop Pro was used to view my email image attachments for Outlook Express. I went searching for a viewer to install and came across a page on the Internet that ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Lynn H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I read your article on CD Mastering Software. I do not know that much about computers, so I am a bit confused as to what I need. Here is my problem: I have 2 Hewlett-Packard (HP) computers. The CD-RW ... drive died on one of them, and was replaced with a DVD Burner, which came bundled with Nero Burning ROM CD Recording Software. The other still uses DirectCD to record CDs. The problem is that discs I create using DirectCD cannot be read in the DVD Burner drive on the other computer. Is there a program out there that will allow both DirectCD ... (view more)

I have been *extremely* busy as of late and am having a hard time keeping up with my regular schedule (and subsequently, the regular newsletter schedule). Just before the holiday break, I mentioned that the newsletter layout would be changing. Well ... -- no surprise -- it looks like I jumped the gun again. As I was adding the finishing touches to the new article format, I decided that it would be extremely beneficial to include links to related articles [previously posted in our newsletter], immediately following the feature article. So, for an example: if I wrote a new article on XP Service ... (view more)

In the last 36 hours, I've received a slew of emails from Readers concerning a program used to move installed application from one hard drive letter to another. Recall -- Infopackets Reader John T. wrote: " ... I've recently partitioned [split] my ... hard drive into two drive letters (C and D drives) so that I can keep my operating system [Windows] separate from my user files ... My question: is there a program that will transfer programs and shortcuts from one hard drive partition to another, and also change the system registry to reflect the move? " In my response to John, I ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Robert F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I really find your newsletters to be interesting and of great help -- keep up the good work! I want to set up an office and be able to email my secretary and have her reply to the email without ... having an Internet connection as I don't need the internet in the business. Do you know of a program that would let me do this? I own a Dell PC and talked to a technician, but they didn't have a suggestion for me. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated! " My response: The simple answer is that email is designed to run on the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John T. 'oldbiker' writes: " Dear Dennis, First of all I think your newsletter -- it's great. I recently partitioned [split] my hard drive into two drive letters (C and D drives), so that I could move my installed programs over to ... D drive and leave C for Windows only. This way, if Windows crashes on me, I can format C drive and not worry about losing any my improtant data (on D drive). [Side note: This is also a great strategy for keeping disk image backups small, and to reduce the time it takes to create an image file]. My question: is there a program that will ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Richard D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've read on some web sites that people are using more than one Spyware scanner on their systems for an added layer of protection. In a similar respect, is it safe to run two virus protection ... programs at once? Can there be any conflicts? " My response: Both Spyware and Virus scanners operate using the same type of mechanism: a database of 'signatures', which are used to recognize infected or suspicious files on your system. The reason why some people choose to scan their systems twice is simply because not all Spyware databases ... (view more)