Leo’s Answers #64 – February 9, 2007

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

Hello!

*** Contents

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

Can a website cause my computer to get a "blue screen of death"?

My wife has recently been intermittently experiencing the blue screen of death while on MySpace. It also wipes out the bookmarks in Firefox. I have always kept her machine lean and mean and up to date. It has current drivers, only four background programs and five non-Microsoft tasks running. Two separate Dell diagnostic programs give the hardware (one year old) a good bill of health. I have recently read that MySpace is using MS server software that is running out of expansion capabilities, and they are in fact having difficulties. Can a web site with the right combination of problems result in a BSOD or can that only occur locally within the PC due to a local problem?

Whatever problems MySpace may or may not be having, causing your "blue screen of death" (BSOD) isn't one of them.

A BSOD should never happen, but when it happens it always indicates a problem happening on your machine.

Continue reading: "Can a website cause my computer to get a "blue screen of death"?"
http://ask-leo.com/can_a_website_cause_my_computer_to_get_a_blue_screen_of_death.html

* * *

Do I need to do something about the upcoming change to Daylight Savings Time?

I was forwarded some email that said the dates for Daylight Saving Time are changing, and that I need to take steps to make sure that my computer's clock would be set correctly. The links went to the Microsoft web site, but I couldn't figure out what I need to do, if anything.

What do I need to do?

Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United States will be extended by four weeks, beginning this year. It'll start three weeks earlier and end one week later than it would have by the old rules.

So the question boils down to: how will your computer find out about the new rules?

As is so often the case ... it depends.

Continue reading: "Do I need to do something about the upcoming change to Daylight Savings Time?"
http://ask-leo.com/do_i_need_to_do_something_about_the_upcoming_change_to_daylight_savings_time.html

* * *

Is there a way to easily open email that's been forwarded multiple times as attachments?

I use Outlook 2003. When I get emails from people that have been forwarded numerous times, I try to open them and I have to keep clicking open the email attachments until I get to the originator's email to be able to read what's in the body. How can i fix that so that I can just get to the original email without having to open all the others? Isn't there a setting that can fix that? It's really annoying.

It is annoying. I get these types of emails all the time (many of which make their way to my humor site Forwarded Funnies).

I can explain why it happens. I can even point out something that some of your senders might be able to do.

But so far, I've not been able to figure out a way to avoid it if you're the recipient of these messages.

Continue reading: "Is there a way to easily open email that's been forwarded multiple times as attachments?"
http://ask-leo.com/is_there_a_way_to_easily_open_email_thats_been_forwarded_multiple_times_as_attachments.html

* * *

Is it safe to connect a drive infected with a virus to my computer?

I have a hard drive that was diagnosed with a virus. I had it replaced but it contains many files (pictures, data, etc.) that I would like to recover. Would it be safe to connect it to my computer as a secondary drive and attempt to copy those files to my computer's primary drive?

I'm a tad concerned that there's more going on here than you've stated. There's no reason to replace a drive just because it contains a virus. Viruses don't harm the hardware in any way that would necessitate replacement.

That having been said, your question is a good one: does mounting any disk, be it a hard drive, DVD, CD-ROM or even a floppy, that contains a virus put your system at risk?

Yes, of course there's risk. But the risk is in what you do after you mount it.

Continue reading: "Is it safe to connect a drive infected with a virus to my computer?"
http://ask-leo.com/is_it_safe_to_connect_a_drive_infected_with_a_virus_to_my_computer.html

* * *

Why can't I open a certain file that's on a CD?

I made a CD of my address book & when I tried open it I got the following message. "The address book has been locked by another application. Please close the other application & try again later" I Googled the problem & I did as Microsoft suggested & made sure the "Read only" box was unchecked In all address book files. It was. Still no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The problem, I suspect, is that there are two types of read-only.

And a program that requires that files NOT be read-only wants it both ways.

Continue reading: "Why can't I open a certain file that's on a CD?"
http://ask-leo.com/why_cant_i_open_a_certain_file_thats_on_a_cd.html

* * *

What does "BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE" mean?

I get email from some folks that have a line at the beginning:

BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE

And then near the end of their message there's:

BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE

followed by some gobbledygook. Now I see that same stuff in some of your responses to comments on your site. What's it all about?

What you're seeing is called a "signature". It's digital data that accompanies a message, and is somewhat similar to a hand-written signature, except for two important facts:

  • It can be used to validate that the message came from who it claims to come from.

  • It can be used to prove that the message wasn't tampered with.

These days both of those can be pretty important.

Let's look at how, at a high level, this type of signing works.

Continue reading: "What does "BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE" mean?"
http://ask-leo.com/what_does_begin_pgp_signed_message_mean.html

* * *

The one skill you should hone.

What's the one computer-related skill that you should improve?

Continue reading: "The one skill you should hone." Article Includes Audio
http://ask-leo.com/the_one_skill_you_should_hone.html

* * *

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*** Popular Articles from the Archives

I get this one so often, it's frightening. And somewhat depressing.

Would you please recover my password? My account has been hacked or I've forgotten it.

  • Someone hacked my Hotmail account and changed my password and my secret question. I have emailed customer service for help but I haven't gotten an answer. Can you get it back for me?

  • Someone has hacked my email address and has changed my password, my personal information and my secret question. I can't log into my own email account! Please help me recover my password. The id that has been hacked is *****. Please rescue me.

  • I am not able to log into my Yahoo account that I've been using for the past 10 years. I clicked on the "forgot password" link and filled in all the details. It's asking me for answer to my secret question - "who's my friend?" How would I remember who would it be 10 years ago? Please reply and save a soul. I have very important information in my mails.

  • I've forgotten my password and the answer to my secret question. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can you send my password to *****@*****.com?

No.

There is nothing I can do. I have no way to help you.

Here is what you can do...

Read more... Would you please recover my password? My account has been hacked or I've forgotten it.
http://ask-leo.com/would_you_please_recover_my_password_my_account_has_been_hacked_or_ive_forgotten_it.html

*** Thoughts and Comments

Blatant plug: Chris Pirillo, aka LockerGnome, is a friend of mine and recently started a new email newsletter, "Pirillo's Picks". It's best described as "links to good stuff". As you might imagine, Chris gets a lot of stuff thrown at him every day, and this is the best of the mess. It's dangerous, I tell you, to get this email and then wastespend the next half hour investigating all the cool stuff that Chris has linked to.

You can email picks<at>lockergnome.com to join the list, go to http://chris.pirillo.com/category/picks for the archives, or use the RSS feed at http://feeds.pirillo.com/Picks.

(I told Chris that I'd be running this, and he was nice enough to put Ask Leo! in the very next issue. Thanks Chris!)

•

As I mentioned last week, I do plan to "do the Vista thing" in the near future. In fact, there's a shiny new copy of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition sitting on my desk as I type. It'll be difficult for me, but I'll be taking it slow, though, so that I can try to document the steps I take. If it's not a total disaster, it could be educational for everyone.

I suppose if it is a total disaster, that'll be educational too, but for a completely different reason.

And yes, Office Ultimate 2007 is here, and I'll be giving that a whirl as well.

'till next time...

Leo

* * *

The Latest:
Forwarded Funnies: "Einstein"
Taming Email: "One Simple Trick to Getting Less Email"
Leo's MovableType Tips: "Leaving Breadcrumbs in Movable Type"

*** 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, I read every email I get.

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?UD=nl. 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.

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

Posted: February 9, 2007 in: 2007
Shortlink: https://newsletter.askleo.com/2928
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I'm Leo Notenboom and I've been playing with computers since I took a required programming class in 1976. I spent over 18 years as a software engineer at Microsoft, and after "retiring" in 2001 I started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place to help you find answers and become more confident using this amazing technology at our fingertips. More about Leo.

2 comments on “Leo’s Answers #64 – February 9, 2007”

  1. I uninstalled vongo player which comes orginally with my HP laptop but on startup it try install itself. I removed all vongo related files even from registry but problem remains there. Is any problem with my installer or its something else?

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