Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
January 4, 2009

Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.

Volume 4, Number 30 — Sunday, January 4, 2009

IN THIS ON-LINE ISSUE:

   1.   Feedback and Tips on Using Multiple Monitors at the Same Time
   2.   The Lighter Side of Technology
   3.   New Year's Resolutions for Computer Users
   4.   Moving Programs to Other Drives
   5.   Followup: Clearing the Address Bar History in Firefox 3
   6.   My Computer Security Software Recommendations
   7.   Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends

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Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter. Its articles are not in the email issue — and the email articles aren't in the online issue — subscribe to my email newsletter so you can read both.

1.  Feedback and Tips on Using Multiple Monitors at the Same Time

Last week's article about using multiple monitors brought several responses from readers.

First, David from the UK commented via my blog to say

Hi Terry.
New year's greetings to you!
Re. your item about using two monitors, I've been using a couple for a few years now and I really don't know how I managed before. Once tried, there just ain't no going back! I feel very restricted when I have to revert to a laptop every now and again.

My NVidia twin-output card allows the use of an extended desktop (amongst other choices) without needing any additional software. For those in the same position, I can recommend a little add-on in the form of "Oscar's Multi Monitor Task Bar".
See: http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm
This is pretty self-explanatory. I didn't know he'd brought out a pro, paid-for version. I use the freebie and it works fine.

Also see his interesting ideas under "Create Multi-Computer environment". On a similar tack, I have a second PC connected with a cross-over ethernet cable to the main PC with the monitor also on the desk with the two monitors from the main PC and I use a program called "Synergy" http://synergy2.sourceforge.net which seamlessly allows the use of one mouse over all three screens and also one keyboard when the cursor is on the appropriate screen. It also allows copy and paste between the two computers, which is very useful. Pity it doesn't allow drag and drop for files, as well! It's so seamless it's a great temptation to try and drag an open window from the right-hand monitor of the main PC on to the single monitor of the second PC and wonder why it won't go! Hope this hasn't strayed too far off topic but Synergy is so good, it's almost worthy of an article in its own right! The only down-side is the set-up (i.e. telling Synergy the relative positions of the monitors), which is a little quirky but once done, it's yet another one of those programs that I wonder how I did without. Regards, David

Then, Ron also commented on the blog to say:

Multi-monitor is great. I just got a new HP laptop in November. It uses a ATI addon video card and came with a built in VGA plug. So I just plugged in my desktop monitor and bingo, 17" laptop LCD at 1440x900 x 59hz and my desktop CRT at 1280x1024 x 85 hz. It worked immediately. The only quirk is that the video utility assumes that the laptop is on the left of the #2 monitor if I power on the CRT after the laptop is running. So the mouse only wraps from the RIGHT side of the laptop all the way over to the far LEFT side of the CRT until I can reset location of the #2 monitor.

So while tools like the one you mentioned are useful, people should first check that their video driver does not already support multiple monitors. They may be pleasantly surprised, especially with newer video cards that already have the second monitor connector built in. You may not realize that your PC is already setup to handle 2 monitors without additional effort.

It sounds like Ron has a great solution. I'd like to do something like that for my laptop, since it's my main personal PC

Like Ron's HP notebook, my Dell notebook has a port for a monitor as well as the LCD screen, and can optionally run both at the same time. In the case of Dell notebooks (at least the one's I've used), pressing Alt-F8 switches between the LCD only, the external monitor only, or both. However, both monitors show the same thing — there's no built-in provision for the monitors to make one large virtual screen as I do with UltraMon at work.

On the other hand, I can do email, web surfing, write newsletters, and edit my web sites in the eveningn while watching TV or DVD's — I keep my notebook in the den on a roll-around laptop cart (there's a picture in my October 5th newsletter ), so there's not room for another monitor.

2.  The Lighter Side of Technology

This week's issue marks the debut of a new Terry's Computer Tips feature — a Jerry King technology cartoon!

Let me know what you think — should I continue having a technology cartoon in each week's online newsletter?

Ever felt that way? Was the problem the vendor, the OS, malware, or the user?

Access Your PC from Anywhere - Free Trial plus $10 Off!

3.  New Year's Resolutions for Computer Users

As we're just started a New Year, we have an opportunity to make those resolutions for the ways we're going to improve our lifestyle this year. Here are some resolution ideas you might want to consider:

1. I will learn more about my computer
2. I will learn more about the software that I use regularly.
3. I will learn new tricks and tips for using Windows itself.
4. I will try new things in Windows and my software — without having a book or a friend tell me what to do.
5. I will learn more about my computer's hardware.
6. I will buy an external hard drive so that I can create a backup that I can store AWAY from my computer.
7. I will email my new friends and old friends.
8. I will keep current versions of anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-spam programs running on my computer.
9. I will try using Firefox to surf the web instead of always using Internet Explorer.
10. I will not use email "stationery" no matter how cute it looks.
11. I will not be a Microsoft beta-tester. I will wait until Microsoft has released at least the second set of monthly patches for a new product or operating system before I buy a new computer that has them installed or purchase them for installation on my computer.
12. I will find and join a local computer users group (computer club) to learn more about my computer, Windows and the software I use. Many computer stores can tell you how to contact your local computer users group. You can also check www.apcug.net to find a users group near you (US and International, too) that has registered with APCUG, the Association of Personal Computer Users Groups.

Long-time readers will recognize many of these resolutions from several years ago. I've updated them a bit and I think they're still very valid.

Of course, you can make decisions like this any day of any year, but the start of a new year is a psychological opportunity to do something differently.

4.  Moving Programs to Other Drives

A longtime subscriber wrote me to ask about making his hard drives run faster:

I added a 500 GB external dive to my system. I am hoping that by moving XP Repair Pro, Counterspy, Eset MOD32 to that drive that Ill make more space available (faster response) on the primary C drive. Is this a reasonable assumption?? Once Repair Pro is on E Drive will running repair both drives??

TIA

I wrote back to Scott to say that I doubt that moving those programs to an external drive would make any improvement in his system's performance, unless he was running out of space on his C: drive — and those really don't take much space.

I definitely WOULD NOT move CounterSpy or NOD32 — they run all the time and you have to expect that any access to the external drive will be slower than access to an internal drive.

As far as XP Repair Pro running from E Drive, it can do that. But, it is a Windows Registry tool, not a hard drive tool. It doesn't make repairs to drives. Depending on the problem, you need something like Spinrite 6 (for a failing or unreadable disk) or DiskMD ( which defragment the drive).

Spinrite 6 (www.grc.com) does low-level repairs of non-readable sections of the drive, but no checking or optimizations of any aspect of the file system or files on it, except to the extent the problems were caused by unreadable data on the drive.

I believe that your most responsive change with respect to your hard drive, in order of effectiveness, would be:

1. if you have a 5200 RPM drive, upgrade it to 7200 RPM. Plus, the drives today typically have a 8MB or 16MB cache, while 3 or 4 years ago, a 2MB cache was more common.
2. defragment the drive. I haven't tried this program, but PC Pitstop (who makes the Optimize 2.0 registry and system optimizer that I use0 has another product called DiskMD, which is a disk defragmenter.
3. change Windows settings to have a fixed size swap file — or at least set a customized minimum size for the Windows swap file. I have 2GB RAM and have mine set at a minimum swap (paging) file size of 1538MB and a maximum of twice that. I turned off the swap drive, defragmented, and then set a large minimum size -- so that it would be allocated in one contiguous (not broken into pieces) file.

In today's world, Microsoft has trained programmers for so long to store the programs in C:\Program Files, the user's data in C:\Documents and Settings\[userid]\My Documents and other program data in the hidden folders under C:\Documents and Settings\[userid]\Application Data and C:\Documents and Settings\[userid]\Local Settings.

What does all of this mean? It means that successfully keeping data and programs separated is painful. The most effective way to create a second hard drive partition, or a partition on a second hard drive, and tell Windows to store any "Documents and Settings" information there.

Back to the task at hand, which was making his system faster, by installing a second internal, not external, hard drive and moving the Windows swap file (called the pagefile.sys in Windows XP) to the seconnd hard drive, Windows will run faster. Probably more effective, you could add more memory to the computer.

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5.  Followup: Clearing the Address Bar History in Firefox 3

Longtime subscriber and newsletter author Clif wrote to suggest another solution to last week's subscriber problem with the Firefox 3 address bar. Nicknamed the "Awesome Bar," the URL prediction features of the Firefox 3 address bar seem to boil down to love it or leave it...

Clif also suggests some free, although lesser function, alternatives for Ultramon and Acronis True Image

Hi Terry,

Some people don't like the "Awesome Bar" in Firefox. Go figure ... I
love it myself. Saves me tons of time.
The fellow in your newsletter. He may want to try this addon. It gives
you back the old Firefox 2x address bar.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6227

For those on a tight budget, there is a free alternative to Ultramon.
DisplayFusion
http://www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion/

and a free alternative to Acronis True Image ...
Macrium Reflect Free
http://www.macrium.com/ReflectFree.asp

Both of the above are not as fully featured as the payware. However, they will work fine for the average joe in most cases.

Best wishes
Clif

 

  

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6.  My Computer Security Software Recommendations

Anti-Virus

I'm often asked about several other popular anti-virus or anti-virus combination packages. Yes, I realize that they are not in my recommendation list. "Enough said..."

For the last five years, until very recently, my personal choice has been ESET's small, fast NOD32 anti-virus program, which offers a FREE 30-day evaluation license. I consider NOD32 one of the best in anti-virus protection. Unlike some of its competitors, ESET offers multiple-year licenses also, and includes program updates in the multiple-year license.

Now, I've changed from my long-time programs NOD32 (antivirus) and CounterSpy (antispyware) to Sunbelt's new VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.

I've found that VIPRE puts even less load on my computer than the speedy combination of NOD32 and CounterSpy. I've also been impressed with the way its "deep scan" has found and eliminated risks that were stored in zip files, which is one of the latest malware email tricks.

Read more about anti-virus programs on my web site.

Related articles:

• Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
• Free Online Antivirus Scan
• NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32
• VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Review

Click here for more information about VIPRE.

Firewall Software

While the Windows XP firewall is much better than no firewall at all, don't count on the Windows XP firewall to meet your needs. You need a two-way firewall, which the Windows XP firewall is not!. Microsoft woke up and supplied a two-way firewall with Windows Vista.

The Windows XP firewall does not control outbound communications originating from your computer — and you should want to have control if adware/trojans/spyware or even commercial products want to talk to the Internet. Whether they are calling home or spewing spam, you want to be able to control your computer.

Do you want Windows Media Player to call home every time you play something? It does! Do you use the Search function in Windows Explorer to find things on your hard drive? Did you know that every time you search, Windows Explorer talks to Microsoft?

I didn't know that when I ran ZoneAlarm, but the Sunbelt Personal Firewall flags that to me, and I can stop it or allow it to happen. Many other programs try to call home when you run them, too.

I recommend my choice for a firewall program, which is Sunbelt Personal Firewall.

You can try the full-featured "paid version" of Sunbelt Personal Firewall free for 30 days — after that, you can register it or, if you're using it on a home non-business computer, you can let it revert to the free, lesser-function license.

Sunbelt Personal Firewall is regularly $19.95 (with discounts for multiple computers and/or multiple years!) for a non-expiring license for the program and includes one year of their updates subscription.

Related articles:

• The Internet Versus You
• Do I Need a Firewall Program?
• My Sunbelt Personal Firewall Review

Anti-Spyware / Anti-Adware Software

CounterSpy, from Sunbelt Software, has received many kudos from the computer press for its always-running and periodic full system scans. It has been my personal choice for my PC's and my family's PC's.

Sunbelt's CounterSpy v2.5, both improved CounterSpy's performance against malware and reduced its impact on system resources and responsiveness when its scanning.

Sunbelt continues to release updated program versions — the current version is v3.1. Nicely, they do NOT install the updated programs automatically. You have to use the Update process in the program, which means that you'll know that something significant has changed.

Now, I've changed from my long-time programs NOD32 (antivirus) and CounterSpy (antispyware) to Sunbelt's new VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware.

I've found that VIPRE puts even less load on my computer than the speedy combination of NOD32 and CounterSpy. My computer seems to have much more pep and power than it had previously. I've also been impressed with the way its "deep scan" has found and eliminated risks that were stored in zip files, which is one of the latest malware email tricks.

Related articles:

• Fighting Against Spyware & Malware
• My CounterSpy Review
• My VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Review

Anti-spam Software

In today's Internet world, the question is not "if" you will get spam, but "how much will you get?"

I use and now I recommend POPFile as my first choice for handling spam. POPFile sits on your computer, between your email program and your ISP mailbox, and handles emial as it downloads.

POPFile uses a different approach to handle spam than some other programs do — it does nothing to reduce spam. It is designed as an email classification tool — you train it to recognize spam and any other type of email that you want to classify. These classifications can help you sort your emails into appropriate folders in your email program.

Sunbelt Software, who makes the anti-spyware program CounterSpy (which I use and recommend) and the firewall that I use and recommend (Sunbelt Personal Firewall) also has a well-regarded, award-winning anti-spam program called iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express. Since I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express for email, I haven't tried iHateSpam.

Mailwasher Pro would be my first choice to handle spam before it ever gets into your computer's Inbox. Mailwasher Pro uses on-line Realtime Black Lists mail servers sending spam recently, "training" by you of what you think is spam, and your own "friends" and "blacklist" lists. Note: I found that PopFile generally meets my needs and stopped using Mailwasher Pro, even though PopFile works AFTER the emails have been downloaded. If I used a dialup connection, I would be more interested in Mailwasher Pro.

Mailwasher Pro can even bounce spam messages, as if your email address was not valid, although the usefulness and appropriateness of this is questionable. There is a free version called "Mailwasher," but it omits the functions that I consider critical for this purpose -- such as safely previewing the emails safely before they ever get to your email inbox.

Related articles:

• Spam Filtering
• Keeping spam out of your Inbox
• Getting Control of Your Inbox
• How Can I Prevent spam?

Cable/DSL Router

If you have a cable modem or a DSL modem, you need to have another layer of inexpensive protection between you and the Internet. A cable/DSL router isolates your computer from direct connection to the Internet. Your computer can easily request your email, web pages, etc. through the router. The responses come back to the router and are smoothly routed to your computer. But, someone on the Internet side of the router can not initiate a connection to your computer — they can only respond to your request.

Even if you only have one computer to connect to your cable or DSL modem, I recommend that you purchase and use a cable/DSL router because of the protection it can give you against attempts to attack through some flaws in Windows itself.

A router isolates your local network, whether it is only one computer or several, from the Internet by actually making it a separate network. The router gets the "public" IP address and handles all your outbound communications and the responses to them. But, it blocks computers on the Internet side from being able to initiate communications with your computer! This will prevent you from falling prey to many worms that try to attack security holes in Windows itself.

For a wireless router, I recommend the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I'm using the relatively new version 6 of this router.

If you don't want wireless, I recommend the Linksys BEFSR41 wired router, which I also use. Either way, based on my experience, I recommend Linksys routers for price, reliability and Linksys' habit of releasing updated firmware for their products..

See these related articles:

• Wireless Security
• Wi-Fi Hotspots and Computer Security
• Wireless Networking Problems & Wireless Networking Security

7.  Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends

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