Leo's Answers #54 – December 1, 2006

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

Hello!

*** Contents

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

How do I upgrade my Outlook PST to 2003 format?

I keep bumping into the 2 gigabyte problem with my PST. While I know I should probably devise a way to keep my PST smaller in general, I understand the Outlook 2003's PST format doesn't have the same problems as the older formats. When I upgraded to Outlook 2003, shouldn't it have upgraded my file format? And how do I do it myself?

Apparently when you upgrade to Outlook 2003 it does not upgrade the format of your PST. Similarly many folks including myself make a habit of upgrading or installing Outlook with our "real" PST squirreled away for safety, only pointing Outlook at it when the installation or upgrade is complete.

Regardless of how you get there, how to upgrade your "primary" PST isn't at all obvious. In fact, it's a tad cumbersome.

Fortunately, it's not something you need to do often.

Continue reading: "How do I upgrade my Outlook PST to 2003 format?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_upgrade_my_outlook_pst_to_2003_format.html

* * *

Recommendation: 7-zip file archiving utility

How can I make list of the files inside of a zip archive file in a text file that I can then view with notepad?

That question gives me a great opportunity to formally recommend a "zipping" or archiving tool that's not only free, but cross platform as well.

Continue reading: "Recommendation: 7-zip file archiving utility"
http://ask-leo.com/7zip_file_archiving_utility.html

* * *

How do I download my Hotmail messages to my computer?

How do I move all my Hotmail folders to my computer or external hard drive? Do I have to do each file/email individually? Or is there a way to save them all quickly.

I'm a little reluctant to answer this question. Why? Because it'll continue to make me sound like a broken record:

This is yet another reason not to use or rely on Hotmail for anything important.

It is possible, but it's not officially supported, and things that do work don't work as completely as you might like.

Continue reading: "How do I download my Hotmail messages to my computer?"
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_download_my_hotmail_messages_to_my_computer.html

* * *

Why does Windows Explorer take so long to display sometimes?

Why is there such a long delay before Drives & Files appear when double clicking on "My Computer" in Windows XP?

It started after I had to do a deep cleaning of my PC in terms of spyware and used several registry cleaners. Everything seems to run fine and smooth now, but I still have this problem.

This is another of those situations that can actually be caused by many, many different things.

Fortunately, there are a couple of really common causes, so I'll look at those and we can see if they help you at all.

Continue reading: "Why does Windows Explorer take so long to display sometimes?"
http://ask-leo.com/why_does_windows_explorer_take_so_long_to_display_sometimes.html

* * *

How do I change Windows sounds?

How do I change the sound when I receive an email? I need it to be louder. I'm using OE 6.

Changing sounds is fairly easy. As is often the case it's all about knowing where to look.

Let me show you with a short video.

Continue reading: "How do I change Windows sounds?" Article Includes Video
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_change_windows_sounds.html

* * *

Switching to Thunderbird

I take the plunge

Continue reading: "Switching to Thunderbird" Article Includes Audio
http://ask-leo.com/switching_to_thunderbird.html

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*** Popular Articles from the Archives

Privacy is a major concern I see raised often in the questions I get. One of the most popular is how to get the Google Toolbar, or the Google home page, to quit showing things you've searched for. Things you might not want others to see that you've searched for.

How do I delete history items from my Google tool bar?

I want to delete the items that show up automatically when I search for something using Google's toolbar. I'll admit it, there are some terms there that I'd not want others to see. How do I clear that?

That's actually a composite question from several related questions that I get several times each day. People search for things on Google, and then they don't want the evidence of what they searched for to remain.

Fair enough.

But there's an amazing amount of confusion. Some say "Google toolbar" and mean "Google toolbar". Others say "Google toolbar" and mean ... well, apparently they mean something else.

And naturally the difference is important in answering the question.

Read more... How do I delete history items from my Google tool bar?
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_delete_history_items_from_my_google_tool_bar.html

*** Thoughts and Comments

If you listen to my podcast you'll know that I've switched from using Outlook to Thunderbird as my primary email client. You'll also know that for me, switching email client's is a big deal. It's been a fairly smooth transition, helped along by the fact that I was able to find several extensions to Thunderbird that replaced some of the functionality I'd initially been missing.

Thunderbird's my clear recommendation over Outlook Express, but as I mention in the podcast, it's giving Office Outlook a bit of a run as well.

This week I added a formal recommendation for 7-Zip, a file compression and archiving utility. After I run Thunderbird for a bit longer, I fully expect to add one for it as well.

In other news, I was saddened to hear of the demise of Google Answers this week. While it might seem odd for me to say that, since in some ways it competes with Ask Leo!, services like Google Answers, and the apparently more popular Yahoo Answers, fill an important niche. As I've said before I do the best I can but I get many more questions than I can answer. I like knowing about other resources out there that can help as well. The generic Google and Yahoo sites, as well as the plethora of support forums and other technical Q&A sites are important resources when you're having problems with your computer, its software, or other aspects of on-line life.

So, besides Ask Leo!, do you have a support resource that you've found particularly useful? I'd love to learn about more, collect them and even present a summary. There's certainly plenty of questions to go around. Drop me a line using the contact info below. Thanks!

Until next week...

Leo

* * *

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

*** 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.

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

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Posted: December 1, 2006 in: 2006
Shortlink: https://newsletter.askleo.com/2858
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