IT@TT - Online

2001

With the New Year, the urge to attempt something new is within all of us. Here at it@tt we urge you to rein in that fascination for the bleeding edge. Just like us. And make these resolutions. These few things should help ensure a trouble-free PC.

Avoid the bleeding edge
Don't be the first to install just any update. Hold back and scope out any major issues.

Be prepared for disaster
PC disasters happen any time any how. Its essential to have good, accessible backups. And to know what to do with them. CD-RW drives are becoming cheaper (as low as Rs 9,000). Media is already next to dirt-cheap (Rs 30 for CD-R and Rs 100 for CD-RW).

Fear not clean Windows install
Installing Windows from scratch cures almost every ill. Just make sure before you start that you have the latest drivers. And expect to spend a couple of days reinstalling and configuring applications. And if keeping time is important, just match up the final results to endless troubleshooting and unreliable operation.

Secure that PC
I hope Y2K taught you not to click suspicious email attachments, even when they loved you! And did you know that Microsoft issued an 100 security fixes! If you are semi-permanently connected to the Net, I recommend a firewall like Tiny Personal Firewall (www.tinysoftware.com) or ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com) and an antivirus solution. You should also check out GRC's LeakTest (http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm) to verify if software firewall can block Trojans.

Understanding installed software
Did you know most "bugs" are caused by users installing or configuring software they don't really understand. This is especially true about security solutions. You install a firewall, and then can;t access your Net phone program because it's incompatible. Even Internet accelerators that cache web pages often show out-of-date pages. If you have problems with a specific web site, disable your browser add-ins to see if that makes a difference.

And before I leave you to ponder, do note that you can't boot from a WinME recovery floppy to restore a previous configuration. This feature in early betas was deleted from the shipping version. Instead, use Scanreg /Restore just like Win98

Also, if you too installed the Outlook 2000 Security Patch, you may never see most of your attachments again. I can't or couldn't until I cam across this fix. Import the Outlook .PST file into Outlook Express to access the "locked" attachments. But watch out, some of them may contain a virus. If you like disregarding my previous warnings and don't mind some old-fashioned Registry editing, check out Microsoft's support article Q263297 (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q263/2/97.ASP) which describes how to re-configure the Outlook 2000 security patch if you connected to an (corporate) Exchange server.

G Menon
[email protected]

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