Leo’s Answers #104 – November 16, 2007

Leo's Answers
A Weekly Newsletter From
Ask Leo!
Leo Notenboom

Hello!

*** Contents

*** This Week's New Articles on Ask Leo!

Why can I only back up a maximum of 4 gigabytes?

I have downloaded a backup program for Windows XP Home Edition. A differential backup of the C drive & System Settings to an external 250gb hard drive fails with a message that the drive is formatted as Fat 32 & the maximum backup is 4gb. There is plenty of space on the external drive. How do I backup 40 gigabytes?

Actually the clue is right there in the error message: the problem is FAT32.

Fortunately the solution is fairly straightforward.

Continue reading: "Why can I only back up a maximum of 4 gigabytes?"
http://ask-leo.com/why_can_i_only_back_up_a_maximum_of_4_gigabytes.html

* * *

How do I click a link on a web page if I have no mouse?

I suffer from mouse related RSI if not very careful and so have to find keyboard shortcuts for as much as possible. However one drag has always been the need to locate by mouse the "next page" box in internet articles. I can imagine the complexities, but do you know if anyone has created any software to locate this on a page and allow one to move to the next page by key press etc?

There is a way already built into most browsers, but it is most definitely not pretty.

There's also a pretty slick way for some types of links if you use Firefox.

There may be other solutions out there that perhaps my readers are aware of, but in the meantime let me tell you what I do know.

Continue reading: "How do I click a link on a web page if I have no mouse?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_click_a_link_on_a_web_page_if_i_have_no_mouse.html

* * *

Are 64-bit PCs more secure than 32-bit machines?

I see that there's an 64-bit version of Windows Vista. Will it be more secure on a 64-bit machine that the 32-bit version on a 32-bit machine?

Looking into it a while back I thought I read that there was greater security on a 64 platform versus 32-bit because there weren't as many viruses, and so on. It also dawned on me that banks and so on all insist on 128-bit security, so I figured that more bits must be better, right?

Well, yes, no, and maybe.

There's a little bit of apples to oranges comparison going on here, but there are also some grains of truth.

Let's look at just what all the differences are and how they do, and do not, impact security.

Continue reading: "Are 64-bit PCs more secure than 32-bit machines?"
http://ask-leo.com/are_64bit_pcs_more_secure_than_32bit_machines.html

* * *

How can I reuse or erase a "dead" hard drive?

Anticipating the inevitable, how can I reuse or erase a "dead" hard drive?

It depends on just what the definition of "dead" is.

In some cases you can resurrect the "dead" drive, either long enough to recover the data on it, or perhaps to simply begin using it as a functioning drive once again.

In other cases it's best to just put a stake through its heart. And I mean that almost literally.

Continue reading: "How can I reuse or erase a "dead" hard drive?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_can_i_reuse_or_erase_a_dead_hard_drive.html

* * *

Does MSN Hotmail or Windows Live Hotmail keep a log of when I signed in?

Does MSN Hotmail (now Windows Live Hotmail) keep a log of when and from what specific computer I logged into Hotmail? I think someone is accessing my mail as this particular person keeps turning up to things I am at. He is a little strange but I don't want to inform the police until i know if he can be traced.

Short answer: we don't know.

The longer answer is that there may well be logs, but whether they contain what you need, how long they'll be kept, and what it takes to even get the answer are huge unknowns.

Continue reading: "Does MSN Hotmail or Windows Live Hotmail keep a log of when I signed in?"
http://ask-leo.com/does_msn_hotmail_or_windows_live_hotmail_keep_a_log_of_when_i_signed_in.html

* * *

Vista, one year later.

A year after its release, how does Vista look in hindsight?

Continue reading: "Vista, one year later." Article Includes Audio
http://ask-leo.com/vista_one_year_later.html

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*** Popular Articles from the Archives

A blast from the past from two years ago:

Leo's Answers #1 - November 18, 2005

Hello!

Welcome to the very first issue of the Leo's Answers newsletter, from Ask Leo!

Wow. Starting up a newsletter is a lot of work. I want to thank everyone who gave me feedback on various issues helping me to craft this newsletter into something that I hope you'll find useful, informative, and even occasionally entertaining.

You can continue to help! I'm always interested in your feedback and thoughts on how I can make this newsletter, and Ask Leo! itself, more useful to you. Drop me a line at leo@ask-leo.com [Updated: due to spam, please use the subscriber question form instead.] . I only give that email address to newsletter subscribers, so I'll know it's from one of my loyal readers. I'll be honest: I'll try to respond, but because of the sheer number of emails and questions I get every day (you'd be surprised how many), I can't guarantee that I'll be able to. Rest assured that even if you don't hear from me directly, I read every email I get.

On with the show... Leo's Answers #1 - November 18, 2005
http://ask-leo.com/leos_answers_1_november_18_2005.html

*** Thoughts and Comments

Yep, it's been two full years of "Leo's Answers", the official weekly newsletter of Ask Leo!.

As I write this there are just shy of 20,000 of you, and I thank you very much for subscribing, for being here, and for your very insightful comments and questions. As I say repeatedly, I may not be able to respond to every comment or question, but I appreciate each and every one of them.

I like to use these milestones as an opportunity to remind myself of just how global the internet really is. For example, here are the top 10 countries subscribing to the newsletter, in order:

  • United States
  • United Kingdom
  • India
  • Canada
  • Australia
  • Pakistan
  • Egypt
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Saudi Arabia
  • South Africa

Not surprisingly, the United States represents just over one half of all subscribers. The rest? 175 other countries around the planet.

Down at the end of what internet marketers like to call "the long tail", here are 21 countries or regions with exactly one subscriber each: Angola, Armenia, Asia/Pacific Region, Benin, British Indian Ocean Territory, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Cote D'Ivoire, El Salvador, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Mauritania, Micronesia, Federated States of, Monaco, Mongolia, Rwanda, Swaziland, Virgin Islands, U.S.

I don't know, but I just think that's wonderfully cool, and I'm glad you're here.

And that goes for everyone in the 140 or so other countries in between as well. I hope you're finding useful and interesting information.

(Pssst! Wanna give me a second anniversary present? Tell a friend about Ask Leo! Smile)

If you have a comment or a question, I'll remind you that newsletter subscribers can visit http://ask-leo.com/askleosubscriber.html to submit your comments and questions. That page is only mentioned here, so I'll know it's from someone who's taken the time to read this far!

Oh, and one small not-so-secret: the "normal" Ask Leo a Question page goes to my assistant where she filters out some of the silly and redundant questions I get, and occasionally points people to articles that already answer their question. However the newsletter subscriber form goes directly to my inbox.

'till next time...

Leo

* * *

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*** Newsletter Administration

Do you have a question? A comment, perhaps? Newsletter subscribers can visit http://ask-leo.com/askleosubscriber.html to submit your comments and questions. That page is only mentioned here, so I'll know it's from someone who's taken the time to read this far!

I'll be honest: I'll try to respond, but I get a lot of questions every day - I just can't answer everyone. Rest assured, though, that even if you don't hear from me directly, every email gets read.

Leo's Answers Newsletter is a weekly publication of Ask Leo! and Leo A. Notenboom. It's also available as an RSS feed at this URL: http://ask-leo.com/newsletter.xml. Archives of previous newsletter issues can be found on the Ask Leo! web site, http://ask-leo.com/newsletter.html.

You're quite welcome to forward this email in its entirety, but you should probably delete your unsubscribe link below, so your friends don't unsubscribe you by accident. You may forward individual articles from this newsletter only if you include all and only the text of that article as found in this newsletter, including any links therein. You may not copy full articles from the Ask Leo! website - more on that in my section on copyright: http://ask-leo.com/terms.html#copyright.

I'd sure appreciate it if regular readers got a subscription of their own. You can sign up at http://newsletter.ask-leo.com.

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Newsletter contents Copyright © 2007, Leo A. Notenboom & Puget Sound Software, LLC.

Posted: November 16, 2007 in: 2007
Shortlink: https://newsletter.askleo.com/3214
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