Leo’s Answers #102 – November 2, 2007

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

Hello!

*** Contents

• This Week's New Articles on Ask Leo!
• A Word from our Sponsor
• Popular Articles from the Archives
• Thoughts and Comments
• Newsletter Administration

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

How do I "shred" individual emails in Microsoft Outlook?

I have Win XP Pro SP2 with MS Office Pro 2000 installed, and use MS Outlook 2000. In the Outlook I would like to be able to shred (not just delete) individual, old e-mails. I have the necessary shredder software to do this but how can I find the individual e-mail files and where they are stored ? I don´t necessarily want to shred all old e-mails, but only specific mails. I think that this must be possible, although I have not been able to find any relevant information on the Internet. Could you please give some advice and point me in the right direction?

We need to first clarify what you mean by "shredding", and then I'll explain why, in general, an external shredding tool can't work with Microsoft Outlook.

And then I'll explain what you can do instead.

Continue reading: "How do I "shred" individual emails in Microsoft Outlook?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_shred_individual_emails_in_microsoft_outlook.html

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How do I restore my computer back to Windows XP?

I have my nephews my old desktop computer, which had Windows XP on it. However, someone put a Windows 2000 disk in (just see what it was - I guess) and now the OS is Windows ME. Is there any way to restore that computer back to XP?

Wow.

I say that because there's no way that putting a Windows 2000 disk into a machine is going to result in that machine running Windows Me. And installing an operating system - ME, 2000 or even XP - doesn't just happen by accident; it requires interaction with someone who's explicitly answering questions about how the operating should be configured.

I'm guessing that a lot more has happened to that machine than your question would seem to indicate.

Continue reading: "How do I restore my computer back to Windows XP?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_restore_my_computer_back_to_windows_xp.html

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Can someone find my home address or telephone number from my email address?

I want to give someone my email address but make sure they cannot get my home address or telephone number. How can I guarantee this? In other words can someone find my home address or telephone number by knowing my email address?

The short answer is that no, they cannot.

The longer answer is that no, they cannot, unless you've been careless.

Let me explain.

Continue reading: "Can someone find my home address or telephone number from my email address?"
http://ask-leo.com/can_someone_find_my_home_address_or_telephone_number_from_my_email_address.html

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Should I upgrade my Windows Me machine to Windows XP or Vista?

When I fist purchased my PC it came with Windows 98. In taking it to a shop for repair the tech installed Windows Millennium. My question is that I wish to update my programs but do not know if I should choose Windows XP or Vista. As always money is a issue; would I be able to get a better deal choosing XP.

I'd guess that XP will be a better deal, but I'm also guessing that you have a much more significant roadblock ahead of you. Something that to correct will be a lot more expensive than the cost of the operating system.

Continue reading: "Should I upgrade my Windows Me machine to Windows XP or Vista?"
http://ask-leo.com/should_i_upgrade_my_windows_me_machine_to_windows_xp_or_vista.html

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What's a "zero-day" attack?

Can you tell me more about zero-day drive-by attacks? I experienced one on my fully updated and patched Vista Home Premium Computer (Automatic Windows Update ON) which has Norton Internet Security 2007 and latest AdAware 2007. I saw the hacked behavior and immediately turned off my computer. Scanning both before and after this attack showed no prior or present malware infection. Is this the best response for such attacks as it appears to have successfully prevented malware infection by this drive-by attack that I experienced?

The very nature of "zero day" exploits is that your virus scanner would show that you were clean both before and after being infected. It's not until your anti-virus software provider updates their virus databases and you then take that update that your scanner would know what to look for.

Yes, that means you may still be infected.

Let's go through the timeline that got you here.

Continue reading: "What's a "zero-day" attack?"
http://ask-leo.com/whats_a_zeroday_attack.html

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What would you take?

Heading out the door in an emergency that might destroy your home, what do you grab? And will it be enough?

Continue reading: "What would you take?"
http://ask-leo.com/what_would_you_take.html

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*** Popular Articles from the Archives

Short and sweet, this article points to a tool I still use almost every day.

How can I tell who's hogging the CPU?

You've seen it: your system comes to a grinding halt as some program seems to hog or monopolize all of your CPU's resources.

Sometimes it seems like so much of what we do is really detective work. And like any good detective, the right tools make a world of difference.

Read more... How can I tell who's hogging the CPU?
http://ask-leo.com/how_can_i_tell_whos_hogging_the_cpu.html

*** Thoughts and Comments

User interface design is hard. I mean really, really hard. I say that because sometimes the most innocuous thing can cause users all sorts of grief.

If you right click a shortcut on your desktop you'll see many options in the menu that pops up. Most of those are standard, meaning that every shortcut gets them by default; In fact a programmer would have to do extra work to change or remove the standard menu items from a specific shortcut.

One Windows XP/Vista difference is that if you right click on the Recycle Bin, you'll see "Empty Recycle Bin" on both operating systems, but now there's a "Delete" option as well in Windows Vista. It kinda, sorta makes sense that it might be there - it's a standard option on almost every other shortcut.

But here's the problem: you're a new user, or you're just in a hurry. You want to dump the contents of your Recycle Bin. You're probably thinking that you want to delete the contents of your Recycle bin, actually. So, if you see the "Delete" item on the menu, you might think that's what it does: delete the contents.

Wrong. Actually the "Delete" menu item deletes the icon from the desktop.

That one addition is confusing a lot of Vista users.

I sympathize.

But I also sympathize with the designers. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, or even optimal. But I do know that just about every alternative you might think of has ramifications you might not know to consider. Even "the XP way" had its issues.

User interface design is hard. Making complex systems both consistent and easy to use is really hard.

If you accidentally deleted the recycle bin icon from your desktop here's the article you want: I accidentally deleted my Recycle Bin in Vista - how do I get it back?

And for the record, you are most definitely not alone.

'till next time...

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The Latest: at Forwarded Funnies: "Kitty Baths [PICS]"

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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.

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