Number 232 - August 2002

GOOD FREE STUFF & A COUPLE OF WORK AROUNDS
by Jean Wilcox, The Suncoast Beeper, March 2002
Windows XP has some very good built-in CD-burning software, licensed from Adaptec by way of their spin-off company, Roxio. But most people don't have XP yet. Roxio's Easy CD Creator is just about the best to be had but it's not free by any means. Hewlett-Packard, on the other hand, has some software of this type that is gratis and easily down-loadable. Not only that, it does some things with MP3 files that the packaged assortment of WinXP-bundled software doesn't. HP's product is called RecordNow, ver. 3.5.     If you have any interest in this application, which runs under Windows98, ME, XP, and Windows 2000 Pro, but not Win95, then the URL for reading about it and downloading it is: www.hp.com/ cposupport/ information_storage/ software/ recordnow_ ver35b_ enu.exe.html It is quite new, released on December 5 of 2001. Free stuff is good; I like free stuff. Here is an excerpt from their web page -     "Hewlett-Packard's RecordNow version 3.5 is a new mastering application compatible with Windows XP. RecordNow 3.5 can create and compile music CDs from MP3 files, wave files and/or other music CDs. RecordNow can also create MP3 CDs specifically for MP3 players; This new version of software also includes CD Database (CDDB by Gracenote) Internet archive integration, which retrieves CD information, including titles, albums and artists, from the Internet directly into RecordNow.     "Data files, including pictures, documents, etc., can quickly be written to CD with just a couple of clicks of the mouse. The user interface in RecordNow has been simplified to quickly get the CD set up and written."     Most of us already have a copy of some version or other of Adobe Acrobat Reader, that little free item that allows us to read .PDF files. Each new edition adds more functionality to an already excellent product. There is another update available for the taking, version 5.0.5. This is a minor update to Acrobat 5.0 and includes a new version of the free reader. It fixes a number of problems, including certain incompatibilities with Windows XP. You can find out more, and get the new reader on-line, at www.adobe.com/ products/ acrobat     Sometimes, when things are going wrong and all else fails, it becomes necessary to reinstall Windows. Setup programs always ask you to verify that you have the qualifying product. Generally you simply need to provide a disk or CD-ROM containing the previous version of Windows, including Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. If you don't have either the disk or the CD-ROM handy, you can trick the Windows 98 Setup program into installing anyway, at least according to a little tip I located at one of my sources. I have not verified this because I don't need to reinstall Windows. I try to be helpful but not to the extent of blowing out a perfectly good working copy of Win98.     In the root folder of your hard disk, create a text file called NTLDR (no file extension). Enter only one line in this file: REM. The Setup program won't ask for a qualifying product if it finds this file. So, apparently. what the installation procedure looks for is not content, but only a file name. Don't sue me if this doesn't work, but it seems to me to be worth a try, especially when you consider the price.     Trying to get rid of the automatic start up Real Player from your computer is almost more difficult than eliminating BonziBuddy, which is saying a lot. The first thing most of us would do, considered the proper thing, would be to go to Start/Run, type "msconfig", (no quotes), click the StartUp tab, and then de-select it by un-clicking the Real Player item. Ninety-five times out of a hundred, this won't work. The next time you boot up, there it is back again. If you really want to fight it to a stand-still, the best way is to open Real Player, choose Preferences to get to the Section called "Start Center", click on Settings, then Start Center Settings, and finally, uncheck Enable Start Center. That'll generally stop it in its tracks.	Here's another tip that I should take to heart myself. Do not stack folders more than eight deep (folders inside of folders). While you can have as many different folders or directories as you see fit, there can be a problem when you have to burrow down too far to arrive at your destination. Aside from the fact that it's time-consuming to have to keep opening, opening, opening to find what you want, the greater danger lies in another direction.     From several things I have read recently, most, if not all, CD burning software has a lot of problems with that situation. When copying or backing up deeply-buried files, those programs can become very unreliable during the procedure. It's very easy to fall into this trap of more and more subdirectories under one main heading.     The first one that comes to mind is the so-called My Documents folder. You start out by dumping in a few letters, a few photographs, and a couple of pieces of clip art. Then the income taxes get in there along with some downloaded software you haven't gotten around to installing yet, and the first thing you know you're up to your gizzard in a big heap of unrelated material.     I just took a long, hard look at my Beeper folder, where I keep all the stuff that goes into our newsletter. Since I once prepared and laid it out myself, and still could in a pinch if Roy should be ill or away, I keep everything that could possibly be needed for the job. I have templates for everything, every graphic we've ever used, (separated by format!), and both text under preparation and bits and pieces for later consideration. It is an absolute rat's nest of sub-directories and it's seven layers deep. I'm ashamed of myself and I'm going to clean it up right now.     Well, we knew it was coming so it should be no surprise. Windows 95 is no longer supported by Microsoft. There will be NO MORE UPDATES of any sort for the operating system and no more security patches for original versions of Outlook Express and Internet Explorer that were bundled with it. That latter point is no big deal; your internet software is a free download from MS so you can always get the newer versions. We printed a list here some time back with the schedule of how long each MS product would be supported but, still, this should be a wake-up call for Windows 98 users. Their time will come, not if but when. And we know when because we saved that list, didn't we? I would suggest that you keep your software updated and patched all the time. Microsoft is very good about pointing out iffy spots in their products when they are discovered. And they make the fixes available at no charge and very little effort on your part. But you do have to go and get them; they won't be mailed out to you or hand-delivered to your door. Clicking on the Windows Update button from your Start Menu is no big effort and it will keep your operating system tuned for best performance.     Security patches and OS updates are not the only things that are available for you at the web site. There is a long list of free stuff there, some of which you might never have even heard of, let alone realized you could use. We are all aware of the newer Windows Media Player versions, each of which is infinitely better than the previous ones, but there are other things, too. If you use Office, there are innumerable bits and pieces that are basically add-ons to the programs contained in it, items like templates for Excel and Word that do all manner of new and interesting tricks. If you don't have Office you can download a free application that will allow you to view the output of people who do. We have discussed the Word viewer before, but did you know there is also a PowerPoint Viewer that will allow you to play PowerPoint presentations? There have been a lot of those floating around the Internet these last few months. If you received files with .PPS or .PPT extensions and didn't know what to do with them, then perhaps you missed out on something good. But the gist is this: it would be to your benefit to keep your stuff upgraded to the max. It will work better and more efficiently for a longer time if you do.
Number 232 - August 2002