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Hints Tips & Rants
by Dale Atchison Tampa Bay Computer Society |
Safely Remove Hardware
Whenever you plug a removable drive into your PC, you'll see a new icon appear in the System Tray; hovering the mouse over this icon will prompt you to "Safely Remove Hardware". You should ALWAYS click this icon and shutdown the removable drive before removing it from your PC. Most of the time, no harm will be done if you don't, but OCCASIONALLY, if you remove a USB drive before Windows has finished rewriting its directory, you can lose all the stuff stored on the drive. So, 'Better Safe Than Sorry', as Mom used to say: don't just remove the drive, "Safely Remove" it.
Sometimes, in Windows XP, the icon doesn't appear when you plug in a USB drive; you can restore it:
- Right-click Start
- left-click Properties
- left-click the Taskbar tab
- left-click Customize
- under "Safely Remove Hardware", put a check mark next to "Always Show"
- OK » OK.
I've been using MailWasher 2 for years. It's cut the amount of spam emails I receive from over a hundred a day to virtually none. I tried version 5, hated it, and reverted to version 2. Version 5 had a 'beg' mechanism that made it a pain to use: every ten starts, it deliberately lost your visual settings and popped up a "Why haven't you registered?" reminder. Ugh! Version 2 couldn't handle a large number of files at once, the sort of long list you get when you haven't checked your email in a few days, but it was still better than having to restore your settings every ten starts, so I waited patiently for the author to replace version 5 with something better.
MailWasher has been bought by FireTrust; I can't tell if Nick Bolton, the original author, is still involved with its developmernt. If not, I hope he made a bundle on the deal — I love this software. The latest version, 6.51, is really slick. It's pretty, considerably prettier than versions 2 and 5. There's more control over the layout, and more popup hints to aid in customization. And it can handle GMail via POP3; if version 2 could do this, I never figured out how to make it work — I never tried it with version 5.
The free version of Mailwasher can only handle one email account; the Pro version can manage as many accounts as you need it to.
New Version of MailWasher
A friend forwarded this email to me. I was inclined to call it Spam and ignore it, but I know this friend just well enough that I can't swear she hadn't actually subscribed to this particular newsletter, whether she meant to or not...
Your PC desktop, that is. If you are anything like me, you have a huge, unorganized mess on your PC desktop that seems to get worse every week. Finding that file or folder is like finding a needle in a haystack, and can be very frustrating, to say the least.
Well, that's about to change... I found a very cool tool that won't cost you a dime, and will forever put to rest the cluttered desktop jungle. Check it out right now, and you can have a clear desktop in just a few quick moments.
There followed a link, which led to a page containg an ad and another link, which led to another ad, another link, etc. Eventually, I got to this link: www.stardock.com/products/downloads/fences.asp . It downloads a file called Desktop Fences beta. I don't usually try beta products, but I was intrigued by the descriptions I had read thru to get to this point. I installed it, and it's still on my desktop and running beautifully three weeks later. From me, that's quite a testimonial. I think my favorite Fences feature is, double-clicking the desktop toggles between 'show fences and icons' and 'clear desktop'.
As stated above, this is a BETA. I've not had any problems with it so far. It's just this week started warning me how close it's getting to Nov 1st; apparently, it's supposed to stop working if it hasn't been upgraded or replaced by then. And if they don't put out a final version by Nov 1st, I remember how to use Control Panel to remove a program.
There's a functionality in Windows called AutoRun. It allows you to have a program or function run or happen whenever a removeable device is plugged in. It's the reason installation CDs automatically run Setup.exe whenever they are inserted. Unfortunately, it's also a good way to infect a computer. It's possible to set up a CD or USB 'thumb drive' to infect a PC immediately on insertion, with no user input necessary.
Our friends at Panda Security have released a free tool to protect against such an infection. It disables autorun on the host computer, and can also vaccinate your USB drive against being infected if it's plugged into a computer that's already been hit by a virus, Trojan, etc.
Download USB Vaccine here: www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/downloads/usbvaccine/
Desktop Fences
From: "NicheADay" nicheaday@nicheaday.com
Subject: Is Your Desktop As Cluttered As Mine?
Panda USB Vaccine
Till next month...
