• How to Remove Windows
  Messenger
  
• free anti-virus and anti-
  spyware programs
  
• Adding more memory
  
• Run Daily Registry Clean
  up On Automatic
  
• New XP install missing
  drivers
  
• Really Delete Old Files
  
• Digg Us Please
  
• Delete or Do Not Delete
  Automatic Updates
  
• Proxy server
  
• How do I turn on the
  number keys
  
• Problem sending web
  page
  
• RegVac and Vista
  
• Installing a 160 gb hard
  drive
  
• icons won't appear on
  taskbar
  
• Questions on our
  Discussion Board
  

How to Remove Windows Messenger

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1159726290/

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• toneyone - messenger appears every time i open outlook. it might not be signed in but sits in the bar annoying me. is there anyway of removing messenger from outlook express,
• silvrstreek - Are you talking about Windows Messenger, if so there is a nifty little program called Shoot The Messenger by GRC that I use. It safely disables Windows Messenger with the click of a button. You can also enable it if you desire. Windows Messenger is a security risk anyway and should be disabled. Here's the link: http://www.grc.com/stm/shootthemessenger.htm - for Shoot the Messenger. Hope this helps.
• gunslinger - or, if you feel frisky you could do it the old fashioned way. go to windows folder, go to tools st top of window, folder options, view, and show hidden, next go to the inf folder. find the file named sysoc. and open it with notepad, remove the hide extention on each. next go back to add remove programs and to remove windows components, you should now have the option to uninstall it.
• Ray - That is a good tip, gunslinger. Let me just clarifiy what gunslinger said.
          First, I would suggest going to Control Panel, then to Add or Remove Programs. On that window (in XP) there is button on the left side called, Add or Remove Windows Components. Click on that and another window will be opened. Scroll down the list to the bottom and uncheck Windows Messenger. Then click on the Next button then on the Finish button.
          If Windows Messenger is not in the list, find the sysoc.inf in C:\Windows\Inf and double click on it. I think Windows Messenger is msmsgs, so find msmsgs and remove the word, Hide, from its line. Do not remove the commas on either side of it. Save the file and go back to Add or Remove Windows Components as described above. Windows Messenger should be on the list.
• Ray - Ron from the UK wrote me and suggested using http://www.chunkypig.com/msn/windows_messenger_remover.php
  

free anti-virus and anti-spyware programs

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1174167785/

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• robert - Are free anti-virus and anti-spyware programs as good as the ones you have to pay for?
• dlwolff0 - You can find reviews on free programs at this link. http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Software/Anti_virus_freeware/ Results from using any program are really the only way to tell if it is any good. Most reputable companies will offer a free trial of their programs.
• rrraminez - Try this excellent software: AVG Antivirus Free Edition at http://www.grisoft.com/
• crs01 - We use AVG Antivirus on both of our computers, and are very satisfied. One thing to be aware of is that a number of people (including us) have noticed that after installation, it causes programs to open V E R Y S L O W L Y, even on a fast computer. I had wondered for some time why Firefox, Word and Excel, particularly, had become extremely slow to open. Yet if closed and then re-opened, they were almost instantaneous. I never did find a reason, but decided just to live with it until I happened to notice a question on a Firefox newsgroup about why it (and Word) was suddenly taking quite a while to open. The user said he'd recently changed his antivirus program, but didn't say what he began using.
          I had a sudden thought: I disabled AVG and then tried opening Word - almost instant opening! I'd previously checked to see if a recent update of Zone Alarm had started the problem at the time, but for some reason didn't think about AVG. I posted on the newsgroup and asked if by chance the other use had switched to AVG - he had, and a couple of others also posted that they'd noticed the same thing but hadn't associated it with AVG until closing it and then opening Firefox or Word.
          Again - we've chosen to stick with AVG as we've found that it is very reliable, have had many viruses and trojans stopped dead in their tracks, and it's FREE. We'll take a few extra seconds to open programs as "payment" for the program.
          As for spyware, check out Ad-Aware at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ - the personal version is free and is effective.
• Saint Satin Stain - http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm You can check out the above link for information about freeware security apps. I have found through second opinions on forums that the informations is reliable. It is techsupportalert. You will find other freeware programs for all your wants and needs. There are two email publications, one free and one paid. Also I would like for Ray to list the freeware that he uses, not just security, if any, but for all niches.
• Ray - I do not use antivirus or spyware programs. There is no need to use them if you know how to behave.
  
  • Do not open email attachments that you do not know for sure what they are (this is where most viruses come from).
  • Do not go to warez websites (these are websites that have passwords and hacked software). These sites often have virus files in amongst the hacked software.
  • Do not click on links in unsolicited emails.
  • Do not enter your credit card number in the forms that unsolicited emails link to even if these emails seem to be from your bank or credit card company. Your bank knows what your credit card number is and will never ask for it.
          Having said all of that, my wife does use an antivirus program on her computer because we have a foreign exchange student that also uses her computer and despite the instructions that I give him, he is always getting viruses. I think that they come from warez sites that he visits.
          I do not recommend any specific antivirus programs. Just about any of them will work. I don't like Norton (which is what my wife uses) because I just don't like Norton and I don't like Kaspersky because it locks up folders which then causes problems with my programs.
  
• gunslinger - i have found some free antivirus and antispyware that work much better than paid versions. the best of the breed i think are AVG, A-squared, spyware blaster, spybot s&d, and ad-aware se. these are all very good programs. if they wont remove the crap from your pc, nothing you could pay for will either.
• Ray - AVG is no longer free on the AVG website (http://www.grisoft.com/). (Gary Sauers pointed out to me after I posted this message that if you go to the Grisoft.com website, click on the Products button, and then scroll down to the bottom of the Products page, that under Free Security, it has the free version. I don't know if that was there before when I made this post or not. I didn't see it at that time.)
• gunslinger - if you go here: http://www.filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus/ you will see AVG free, i have installed it on about 7-8 systems recently and they are still updating just fine.
  

Adding more memory

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1177954442/

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• Leesa - My computer needs more memory since it came with just 256MB installed. The guy at Radio Shack tells me they don't make 256 sticks, and I have to go to 512....but I have to uninstall the 256, or my computer will have all kinds of problems...up to and including the motherboard going out. He doesn't have any memory sticks on hand.
          The guy at Office Depot said I can just install the 512, and not remove the 256. He looked up my make/model on his computer, and has the correct 512 for it.
          My dilema is which one to believe since I don't know either guy. So I came here for the expert advice from people I trust to know what they are doing.
• dlwolff0 - Not sure what the Radio Shack guy is talking about, you're lucky he didn't have anything on hand since he obviously knows next to nothing about computers.
         
          The guy at Office Depot is correct, you can install the 512 with the 256. Only possible downside to doing this is if your motherboard supports dual channel mode [not likely with a 256mb module as original installation] it would not operate in that mode. Other thing you might check is if the motherboard requires the larger module to be in a particular socket.
• Leesa - Bought the 512, installed it, and the computer runs fine...even is faster. The only thing I had to do was uninstall the printer, then reinstall it. Everything seems fine, so can I proceed on the assumption that the motherboard accepts the 512 in the slot next to the 256? The computer's innards aren't going to burn up/out etc., are they? That Radio Shack guy really has me worried.
          I've run across some really dumb...as far as computers are concerned...people working in places that sell computers, and they are supposed to be the experts. Sad thing is, people believe and trust them, and they don't know diddly about the job they hired on to do. Then there ae the Tech Support people...they are scary too.
          Ray, I can't tell you how much you are appreciated by those of us who were fortunate to find your web site way back when, and to purchase your products. I will never forget how much help you gave me when I got my first computer. Bless you.
• Ray - Thank you for your kind words.
          Thanks also go out to dlwolff0 for all of his answers and help in this forum. He knows about the things that I don't know about.
          To answer your question about your computer accepting the 512, yes, it should work fine.
          I can understand the wrong advice from sales people. Some time ago, I worked in the oriental rug department of a furniture store and people would ask me all kinds of questions about oriental rugs even though I was just a minimum wage laborer who knew nothing about oriental rugs when I was hired. Luckily, my boss was an expert and I learned from the answers that he gave.
          The computer store sales people are the same way. They get a lot of questions, yet they don't go through any training. So they have to learn from what they hear or make something up. It is not good for a sales clerk to say that he does not know the answer to your question. That puts a bad image on the whole store. I have found some sales clerks to have great answers and others not to.
  

Run Daily Registry Clean up On Automatic

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1178979119/

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• dragonfly - I clean my registry daily. Is there a way to 'piggy back', Win Rescue, A1Clean, and RegVac to do their various processes, one after the other while I'm making coffee, or whatever in an automatic way?
• Ray - I just run them all at once (I only run WinRescue once a week).
          One alternative to that is that WinRescue has a Seconds to Pause setting in the Automation section, so you could set that and thus have WinRescue wait that amount of seconds before it runs (allowing RegVac and A1Click time to finish).
          Another alternative is to use Speed Startup and put them in its Startup Lineup. In the Lineup you can specify how many seconds to wait (this is the Delay) but if the previous program gets finished before that amount of seconds, that program will be run immediately. So you would want to put a huge amount of seconds for all but the first one.
          Another alternative is to set the three programs to not run automatically and then make a bat file. A bat file can be made with Notepad. You would make a line in the bat file for each program giving the filepath and parameters (the Help file in each program tells how to set up the parameters of a commandline to run them automatically). Be sure to give the bat file a .bat extension and put it in the Startup folder of the Start menu. If you do it correctly, each program will be run one after the other.
• dragonfly - Thank You Ray ! You did it again. A promt and through answer. I wish I just had a teaspoon of computer knowledge of your know how and computers. But, I learning by looking at sites like this one.
  

New XP install missing drivers

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1178074756/

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• jshram - I'm loading XP on a new HD (bigger, faster) but there are critical drivers missing which keep me from logging onto the internet (sound, VGA and others), either with the wireless or ethernet making going out on the net for drivers impossible. The devices list themselves as unknown so I can't even see what the model is to go search on the other computer.
          I tried loading the drivers file from the old CD onto a disc and making the new XP look there, but it won't recognize the drivers...
          So what do I do? I'm currently using my old HD which has some major problems....
• Ray - Each of those components that you have on your computer (like, the ethernet card, the wireless card or box, the monitor, the sound card, etc.) came with software and a manual to install it. You need to run that software and install each of them according to the instructions that came with them.
          If those components came with the computer when you purchased it, they were already installed. You are going to have to reinstall them, use the restore CD which came with the computer, or use the XP on the other drive.
          Installation of a component usually does not work if its unknown device item is in the Device Manager, so you need to remove it first (sometimes accomplishing that can be tricky).
• rarrows - There are driver backup utilities for free on the web. You should use one to backup your drivers and to burn a copy to a cd. use the cd as a disk when device manager wants to install drivers. That makes problems like yours easy to solve, but it requires backup before a problem occurs.
  

Really Delete Old Files

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1178457411/

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• pakama - I have a new latop set to arrive tomorrow and will be selling the old one. I have removed all files and programs from the old machine, but have heard that someone who knows how can still bring them back. Because I prepare taxes I had copies of returns and other confidential information saved on this machine and do not want any of that to fall into the wrong hands. I would rather not format the drive, just because of the time it will take to re-install and update XP. I am looking for some good tool that will erase the old, but leave XP and the Dell stuff that might be of value to the new owner. Any ideas will be appreciated.
• jccomputer - Spybot has a free file shredder in it that you can set how many time you want a file shredded
• pakama - Sometimes the answer is so obvious that we just don't see it. I am sure that Spybot shredder is a great, but I happpen to be using AVG on this machine. Your answer led me to check and I found a shredder there as well. I just spent about 2 hours shredding and feel much more secure about selling the old machine.
• Laverne - Pakama --In your first post, you said you removed all files and programs which you didn't want. Then, what did you shred if these were already gone? Did you shred the empty space? I am asking because I want to do a similar thing to my computer before I give it away.
• pakama - I looked back at the original post and realize I did say I had already deleted the files, but that was not totally accurate. I had started to delete files wen I posted the question. After getting the response I then just went on a shredding trip through the entire drive. I found old programs and files I had forgotten about as well as some stuff that really did not need to be in the wrong hands. I have also defragged the drive two or three times. I think the last steps I will take before selling the laptop will be to copy over some meaningless files from my primary computer just to fill up the drive and then shred and drfrag it again.
• Laverne - Thank you, Pakama, for your quick reply. For your information which might be helpful to you, I have a program called Eraser (free download) which erases (or overwrites?) empty space. In case you are interested, this is the site: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/default.php It also shreds files and folders and has options as to how many passes you want to use in the shredding, which I believe is 1 or 3 or 7. Just thought I'd pass along that information. I have seen it recommended on several Forums and have been using it to shred files and folders for 4 years. I have never tried overwriting the free space, though.
• pakama - That sounds a lot easier than what I was going to do. I followed the link and completed the downloads. I will install and erase later.
  

Digg Us Please

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        I would like to ask a favor of each one of you. It is simple and will not take more than a minute or two to do, but it should help this newsletter immensely.
        Please go to the three newsletter pages listed below (they are our How To Clean series) and click on each of the Digg It links on each of the articles (there are five articles on each page). Each article has a Digg icon and the words, "digg it", below it. The icon shows how many people have voted for the article.
        Clicking on the words, "digg it", will take you to the Digg.com website where the article is shown. Click on the words, "digg it" (under the Digg icon at the Digg.com website) to cast your vote for the article. If you are not logged into Digg.com or if you have not registered with them, you will be asked to do so. Registering is easy and will result in nothing other than allowing you to vote for articles.
        That is all you need to do. You do not have to leave a comment (even though a positive comment would be appreciated) or do anything else. Just click on the words, "digg it", on the Digg.com website for each of our articles.
        Digg.com has high traffic and if our articles can be listed high there (because they have many votes), they will recieve a lot of attention and hopefully people will subscribe to this newsletter. For this to be successful, we need a few hundred of you to do the above.
        Once you have digged the five articles on each of the three pages below, you may take a look around digg.com and find some good reading and viewing.
        I appreciate your help in this. Here are the three links:

• http://www.superwin.com/RaysComputerTips/Issue19.htm
• http://www.superwin.com/RaysComputerTips/Issue20.htm
• http://www.superwin.com/RaysComputerTips/Issue21.htm
  

        Thanks again. Until next week.


Delete or Do Not Delete Automatic Updates

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1179186506/

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• pschonstrom - Ray's email about getting rid of junk files reminded me of a question I've had for quite some time.
          XP Control Panel\Add-Delete files will list a large number of updates I presume to have been installed by MS Auto Update. C:\Windows lists a large number of folders/files that appear to be uninstall files for updates, again probably from MS Auto Update.
          Question is: To delete or not to delete this glut of files. If I use Control Panel's Add-Delete are the updates themselves deleted or only the file? If I go into the Windows Dir root and delete files from there am I still creating a problem?
• Ray - I don't think that Windows lists their updates in the Add/Remove list anymore. I would not uninstall the ones that are there (you can use the Add/Remove Editor in RegVac to remove (not uninstall) those items.
          As far as the one on the hard drive are concerned, I assume that you are talking about the ones which start with $NTUNINSTALL. The older ones there can be deleted. A1Click Ultra PC Cleaner (http://superwin.com/a1clean.htm) removes the ones that are older than two months old.
  

Proxy server

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1179423735/

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• fpjackson - Am attempting to install Firefox 2 and an update to another program and receive the message "The proxy server is refusing connections. Firefox is configured to use a proxy server that is refusing connections." What must I do to allow these installations?
• dlwolff0 - Look under tools\options\advanced\network\settings and see what proxy server that Firefox is attempting to use. [This is in the Firefox browser.] If you are using a proxy perhaps you have it configured incorrectly. The connection settings in the browser should match your Internet connection method. Note that there is an option to auto detect the network settings.
  

How do I turn on the number keys

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1179113849/

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• JAM - How do I set options to enable me to use the numbers on the right side of my keyboard, instead of having to use the numbers on top, over the letters? I've tried to set it in control panel, but I'm not sure what I'm doing. Sometimes I can get it to work, then, when I turn on computer again, I can't get the numbers side to work again. I really don't understand what options to set. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
• Ray - The numbers on the right side are called the keypad.
          Look on your keyboard for a NumLock key and a NumLock light (they should be on or near the keypad). If the NumLock light is on, the keypad will work. If it is off, it will not work. You can turn the NumLock light on and off by pressing the NumLock key.
• Christo - Normally Numlock default status is set in BIOS - refer to your motherboard manual for this feature.
  

Problem sending web page

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1179647559/

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• carolvan - I am using Internet Explorer 6.0 & MSN Hotmail. When I click on File to send a webpage I get Fatal Login Error.hr=80041035,f=-2147217355
• dlwolff0 - Try going to this page and selecting the link for Hotmail support. http://support.msn.com/default.aspx The Hotmail support page gives numerous possible things that might cause a problem sending a webpage. You need to check possible problems with your browser settings.
  

RegVac and Vista

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1179731199/

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• mgraham - Is Regvac compatable with windows Vista Home Basic?
• Ray - Yes.
          More information about RegVac Registry Cleaner can be found at http://superwin.com/regvac.htm.
  

Installing a 160 gb hard drive

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1180074275/

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• Roy Harrison - I have just bought a 160 gb hard drive to put into my computer. I have a matewho tried this with his computer and when installed it only showed, and gave access to about 30gb. How do I avoid this situation when installing?
• Ray - It sounds like your mate had a FAT32 file system which only handles drive sizes up to 32gb in WinXP. NTFS files systems can handle drives up to 18 billion gb.
          I wrote an article on this topic in issue 10 of our newsletter, Ray's Computer Tips (http://superwin.com/RaysComputerTips/Issue10.htm#tech).
  

icons won't appear on taskbar

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Find this on our board at http://www.regvac.com/forum/m-1157389690/

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• boiler_bob - Some or most of the icons dissapear on the task bar . When I check the speakers and network connections the box is checked to desplay these. Other Icons also dissapear. This is on XP home eddition. There is only the quick launch tool bar using the area and there is plenty of room.
• dlwolff0 - Look at Control Panel\Task Bar and Start Menu. Under the notification area heading, there is a check box that says hide inactive icons. If you want all the icons to show all the time, uncheck this. Otherwise, click the customize button and you can set each individual icon to always show, hide when inactive or always hide.
• boiler_bob - The show/hide checkbox is already unchecked.
• dlwolff0 - What configuration do you see when you click the customize button? Some one may have set the missing icons to not show.
• Ray - The SysTray value must be in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ShellServiceObjectDelayLoad key of the registry. If it is not there, try adding a string value to ShellServiceObjectDelayLoad (right click on it and select New then String Value) with a value name of SysTray and value data of {35CEC8A3-2BE6-11D2-8773-92E220524153}
  

Questions on our Discussion Board

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How to make Firefox the default browser

loginnet password

mouse problems

How to find Free Space

Should I allow 3rd Party Cookies?

startup error

Safely Remove USB Sticks

Troubles with Windows Explorer

xp--sp2 pagefil location

How to save a draft message

printer problems

Windows Vista not running .pps files

open windows explorer

Windows protection file error message

weird audio sounds

false error message

no sound

Programs open IE not Firefox

Unable to Repair Registry

Lost Internet Explorer Options

disappearing disk

Removing storage device safely

Are Macs immune to viruses?

remove framework2.0

hijacked internet explorer

how to permanently remove processes

Newsletter Question

Computer Shutting Down

Windows Media player & other programs

Speed Startup

XP or Vista?

Programs won't install on Win95

Ray, what do you use

Lost IE6 Desktop Icon

Sony Handycam does not work

wwmp11 & Vista

defragmentation of all drives

Outlook Express/ Can't view mail

printer network problem

Run Command to see Startup list

WinRescue Writes to Wrong Drive

PowerDesk Pro problem

using smileys

CD drive opens randomly

Splicing USB Cables

NTFS vs. FAT File System

SYSTEM RESTORE doesn't restore


Thanks for reading,
Ray Geide