Leo's Answers #47 – October 13, 2006

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

Hello!

*** Contents

*** New Articles of Note on Ask Leo!

How do I change the "mailto:" or default mail program?

When viewing some web sites, I want to send them an email for whatever reason. I click, "contact us", a window opens and I type my question. When I press, "send", I realize that the email is being sent using Outlook, and as a result I asked to setup a POP address etc. I prefer to send and receive my messages using my Yahoo account. Can you tell me how I can set it up so that when sending a message as explained above, yahoo will come up as my email carrier?

It's not that hard to change the system default mail program to one of a pre-defined list of applications. Not surprisingly, HotMail and Outlook Express are among the default choices.

If you want something else, like GMail or Yahoo Mail, things get a little more interesting.

Continue reading: "How do I change the "mailto:" or default mail program?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_change_the_mailto_or_default_mail_program.html

* * *

How do I send email to another machine on my local network without hitting the internet?

How can I send an email to another computer on the same LAN without using the ISP - directly from one PC to another? I use Outlook while the other PC uses Outlook Express. IP's are dynamic and both PC's have the same workgroup name and individual PC names. There is no mail server.

This is a very common question. It would seem like having two computers one ought to be able to send email between them without some kind of "middle man".

Sadly, you can't. All I can do is explain why - and if you're a geek, point you at what's required.

Continue reading: "How do I send email to another machine on my local network without hitting the internet?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_send_email_to_another_machine_on_my_local_network_without_hitting_the_internet.html

* * *

Why can't I put my email on CD?

I have many folders in Outlook Express that I would like to copy to CD to free up hard disk space. I would like to then access them directly from the CD in the future to read and print. I can't get it to work. Why not?

Well, you certainly can put your email on CD. In fact, it's a popular way to back things up.

But in what many consider to be a really perverse "feature" of both Outlook and Outlook Express, you can't read your email directly from CD.

Here's what you need to do.

Continue reading: "Why can't I put my email on CD?"
http://ask-leo.com/why_cant_i_put_my_email_on_cd.html

* * *

Why didn't my backup program restore everything?

I recently hard a hard drive failure on my PC and replaced it with a new one. I reinstalled Windows XP and had a back up with a program called Genie Backup Manager Home 7.0 which advertised it backed up programs. When I reinstalled my back up to my surprise it did not reinstall most of the programs that I had downloaded off the net or from CDs. I found out later it only restored certain programs and not downloaded ones.

My question is are there any software programs that I can get to back up my PC and restore it to the original condition with all my working downloaded programs? I was told an image backup might do it but a few people told me it would not restore my downloaded and CD-installed programs and would probably not put my computer back exactly the way it was except for certain things. Is this true and if it is are there any other programs available that will do it?

I'm not at all familiar with Genie Backup Manager, so I can't speak to it specifically. I will say that almost any good backup program should be able to do exactly what you're looking for.

But there are two caveats: you have to configure your backup program properly, and you must keep your backups up to date.

Continue reading: "Why didn't my backup program restore everything?"
http://ask-leo.com/why_didnt_my_backup_program_restore_everything.html

* * *

Why won't my display turn on?

My display monitor wasn't working. I tried everything to get it back on. Rebooted the computer, pushed the on/off button on the display, etc., but it just wouldn't come on. I knew the computer was running because I could access it via Remote Desktop from another machine on my network.

Finally, I *unplugged* the display, plugged it back in three minutes later, and it worked fine. What happened, and why did that help?

First, I need to be clear - the top reasons I hear about in general for a display not working or showing "no signal" are:

  • Your computer isn't working. Fans and lights may not mean anything - if the computer can't start because of some other problem, it may not be able to provide a signal to the display.

  • Your cable's bad, loose or unplugged. If a signal can't get to your display, there's nothing for it to show you.

And in both of those cases the problem is not the display.

Now, let's look at some situations where it is.

Continue reading: "Why won't my display turn on?"
http://ask-leo.com/why_wont_my_display_turn_on.html

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*** Popular Articles from the Archives

Last week I mentioned here the popular article about how to hide email addresses on messages you send using BCC. This week the companion article (that I, coincidentally, get asked a lot more frequently):

How to I view the list of BCC'ed recipients on an email I've received?

I want find the list of "undisclosed recipients" of the email I've received in outlook. Is there any way?

"Undisclosed recipients" is often placed in the "To:" line by some mailers when the email being sent has no entries in the "To:" or "Cc:" lines. The sender has used the "Bcc:" feature of email to send the email to one or more people, without revealing who they are.

So how do you find out who they are?

Read more... How to I view the list of BCC'ed recipients on an email I've received?
http://ask-leo.com/how_to_i_view_the_list_of_bcced_recipients_on_an_email_ive_received.html

*** Thoughts and Comments

Last week I mentioned Future Tense as one of the podcasts I listen to regularly. That reminded me of two things I wanted to share here:

First: another great podcast for the technically minded is ITConversations. They provide audio from many many industry talks, presentations and even the tech-related public radio program Tech Nation. If I'm driving for any length of time, these are probably what I'm listening to.

Well, those or Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! or Says You! :-).

Second: my own podcast will be returning in a couple of weeks. If you've regularly read this far, you'll know it's been a busy couple of months, but hopefully things will settle down once I return from my business tip in a little over a week.

Business trip? Yep, I'll be in Baltimore, Maryland next week for a meeting of an internet entrepreneur's group I belong to. Ask Leo! will actually continue to run - though somewhat on auto-pilot. While I do expect to have good connectivity while there, the days and evenings will be full of some serious geeking out. (Trivia: Ask Leo! exists because of this group - the idea and the motivation came to me during my first conference three and a half years ago.)

Until next week...

Leo

* * *

The Latest:
Forwarded Funnies: "Halloween humor"
Taming Email: "Don't Ask for Spam"
Leo's MovableType Tips: "Changing Page Names Mid-Stream"

*** Newsletter Administration

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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.

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Newsletter contents Copyright © 2006, Leo A. Notenboom & Puget Sound Software, LLC.

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Posted: October 13, 2006 in: 2006
Shortlink: https://newsletter.askleo.com/2810
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