Windows Tips

Yeah, the wallet is on a major diet this year. So, I thought I'd spread some Holiday cheer and start this week off with some cool computer gift ideas for under $50 bucks. At the end of my Top 10 list, I invite you to email your $budgeted$ gift ideas ... and I'll include them in tomorrow's issue of the Gazette. #1. Optical mouse with a Scroll Wheel: Less than $25 If I had to go back to a ball mouse, I think I'd go insane. Optical mice are very precise and don't suffer from jerky movements or get gummed up like ball mice do... plus you can use an optical mouse on just about any surface. An optical ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Phil M. writes: " Dear Dennis, The in-house guru for my office recently gave me my own user account and password on a Windows NT 4.0 machine. Previous to this, the computer required no login and used a central Outlook 2000 ... database for contacts. Now that I have my own login account, I can't access the Outlook 2000 contacts because they no longer belong to my user account. Is there any way I can access the previous Outlook 2000 contacts list? I don't know where to look. " My response:I don't use Outlook 2000. If anyone knows the answer to this, email me and I'll ... (view more)

I've been toying with some different ways to help get the word out about the infopackets web site. I'm on a tight budget, especially after getting $burned$ from a sucky web hosting company . In fact, I sent the Sucky Web Hosting company an email ... yesterday asking when my account was going to be refunded because my bank statement reported no activity. Here's two emails I received regarding my refund: November 29: " Your account will be refunded all but the $99 Setup Fee. Refunds are usually processed within 24 hours of cancellation ... sometimes it can take a while to show up in your bank ... (view more)

I guess I don't get out very much because a handful of Infopackets Readers informed me today that there are indeed DVD Records which also burn CD-R and CD-R/W discs. Chris J. wrote in and told me about his Sony DVD-Burner, model DRU500A. This drive ... was a popular pick among many other Gazette Readers: " I have a Sony DRU500A DVD – CD Burner. It writes in DVD+RW (2.4x), DVD-RW (2.0x) & CD-RW (10x) and reads in DVD+R (2.4x), DVD-R (4x), CD-R (24x) and CD-Rom (32x) formats. It retails for $350, but I’ve seen it as low as $315 on the Internet. So far it’s working great. " Rob R. also ...href="/news/9182/dvd-cdr-cdrw-all-one-combo-burner-part-2" class="more-link">view more)

Lavandran R. asks: " Dear Dennis, I've heard about combo drives which include DVD and CD-R/RW all-in-one. Does this mean I burn DVDs and CD-R/RW with the same unit? I'm confused! " My Response: There are DVD burners which can burn DVDs, but they are ... very expensive since it's new technology. I'm not aware of any DVD burner / CD-R/RW combo units on the market at this time. Unless it is specifically stated that the drive is a DVD-Burner, it probably is not. Most likely the drive you're looking at is a combo DVD reader and CD-R/RW burner. I've had a combo drive like this in the past and ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader David R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just finished reading your latest newsletter entitled, ' Required DLL not found error message .' On a related note, searching Google is usually one of my first steps in dealing with any unknown ... computer problem. Invariably, I'll find that someone else has had the same or a similar problem before me, and I avoid 're-inventing the wheel' by trying those solutions first. Two days ago I found a DLL file resource that was the best I'd ever seen! I use Win98SE and it listed EVERY DLL file, briefly told what it does, gives the version number ... (view more)

Recall Jack G.'s question from last week: " Every now and then my mouse is frozen when I boot up Windows XP. Is their anything I can do to fix this problem? " Since then, I've received a whole whack of suggestions from readers of the Gazette. In ... fact, I couldn't believe how many people share the same problem as Jack. Unfortunately, it would appear that there is not a one-set solution to this problem. So, I'll give you the best of the suggestions I received and hopefully it may resolve some of your problems. Suggestion #1: CTRL + ALT + DEL The most popular (temporary) solution was to ... (view more)

Recall yesterday's Visitor Feedback question which dealt with a disappearing Shutdown menu: " I'm running Windows 2000 Pro. When I try to shut down the machine by clicking on Start -> Shutdown, I no longer have the option to Shutdown, Restart, or ... Hibernate! In fact, the machine automatically does a restart, offering *no* choices when Start -> Shutdown is clicked... " There were many good suggestions sent in from the Infopackets Readers. Since I've never experienced this problem before, I can only guess at the most probable answers, starting with Pattie W.'s suggestion: " ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Larry O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 2000 Pro. When I try to shut down the machine by clicking on Start -> Shutdown, I no longer have the option to Shutdown, Restart, or Hibernate! In fact, the machine ... automatically does a restart, offering *no* choices when Start -> Shutdown is clicked. The only way I can actually shut this computer down is to either pull the plug from the outlet or to hit the sleep button on the keyboard. Any ideas? " My Response: I have no idea on this one -- aside from maybe a Registry Tweak (where to start?) or, worse yet ... (view more)

Recall: Yesterday, Don W. sent in a question which asked why he kept getting a Window every time Windows booted up saying that the file "DDRAW.DLL" could not be found . My suggestion to Don was to search for the .DLL on his system and try to locate ... the program folder to determine where the .DLL came from, uninstall the program, and then reinstall it in hopes of clearing up the error message he was receiving. Unfortunately, I forgot that some Windows operating systems will not display a .DLL file by default. Furthermore -- as Darren B. points out, the DDRAW.DLL file is actually a ... (view more)