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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2003-02-24

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) XP Professional's Free "Remote Control" Option

It's one of XP Pro's hidden gems: A built-in, simple way to control your PC from afar. It lets you do everything from basic file and data access up to fully taking over the keyboard and mouse of a distant PC, just as if you were sitting in front of it. What's more, XP Pro extends this remote-control ability to any and all versions of Windows--- all the way  back to Win95, including Windows CE palmtop systems and XP Home--- via a FREE client software tool.

Here's an example of how it can work: Imagine you're away from the office, perhaps at home or on a business trip, and need a file you left on your PC at work. With XP running on your office PC, you can connect to that PC from afar and (with proper permissions) either transfer the file to yourself, or otherwise use your office PC just as if you were physically present at it.

Or: Imagine that a distant coworker or friend asks you for advice in solving some problem on his or her PC. Instead of having to try to talk them through a fix by phone, you can connect your PCs (via the internet) so you can see exactly what they're doing wrong. You can then offer live guidance to them via a built-in text chat, or if that's still not enough, you can (with proper permissions) actually take over their PC and fix their problem for them.

While both those examples involve remote control at considerable distances, I find it handy even in closer surroundings. For example, I'll use my laptop to remotely control my desktop PC even if I'm just going to another part of the building: Instead of having to synch all my files and get everything onto the laptop before I change locations, I can just fire up the remote control software, and use the laptop to access everything, live, on my main PC, just as if I'd never left my chair. When I return to my PC, nothing has to be transferred back from the laptop--- I just pick up from where I left off. It's a real time-saver.

I also use XP's remote control to trigger virus-scans, defragmentation, backups, or other maintenance activities on various machines around the building without having to run back and forth to each machine several times during the maintenance cycle. It's very convenient; I use the remote control feature literally almost every day.

XP's remote control has three major faces: "Remote Desktop," "Remote Desktop Web Connection," and "Remote Assistance." A new article, live now at http://informationweek.com/story/IWK20030221S0012 , runs through the similarities and differences, shows you the pros and cons, shows you where to get the free client software, and most important, shows you how to use these remote control options safely, *without* opening a huge security hole on your PC.

With this information, you may never need a separate tool like LapLink, Radmin, PcAnywhere, GoToMyPC, or others--- XP gives you the tool, built into the operating system. You just have to know how to use it---safely!

See you at http://informationweek.com/story/IWK20030221S0012 !

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2) "Clean To The Bare Metal;" And Saving Web Pages

Although these question were prompted by XP issues, the answers apply to all versions of Windows:

1) Is there a way to get down to the "bare metal" in WinXP? By booting in DOS mode in Win98, I could do some serious housecleaning on files not normally accessible from within the Windows environment. For example, I could delete and write over the swap file and various .dat files, in addition to writing over all the empty space on the drive (or as much as I wanted to). I even wrote a little DOS program to fill up the drive's empty space with random bits, right down to the last cluster. But WinXP just doesn't seem to allow that kind of thing. Is that an absolute "no-no" in XP, or is there some trick I need to know about?

2) When a web page, say "Great-New-Stuff.html" is saved as HTML, a subfolder named "Great-New-Stuff Files" is created to hold all the little files that augment or just decorate the page. Quite often, I have no need for those files and delete the subfolder. But unlike Win98, which assumes that when I delete a folder that's all I want to delete, WinXP assumes I want to delete the saved parent page as well. I lost a couple of saved pages because of this quirk, until I discovered it and figured out a way to deal with it (I rename the subfolder before deleting it). What were they thinking when they put this "feature" into XP? --- Jim Giglio

1) Yes, there are ways to clean house in XP. Most of the tweak sites have tools and info, and you can use this, too:
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-04-04.htm#2 .

Some XP/2K cleaning is actually easier than in earlier versions of Windows. For example, you mention the swap file (also called "virtual memory" area or "page file"): Clearing this area can actually improve your security, because the swap file/page file usually contains scraps of programs and data from your previous Windows sessions: Even after Windows is shut down, someone with access to your PC could copy the swap file and mine it for leftover information.

Although you can wipe out the swapfile in Win98, it's a clumsy process. (You have to use a tool like DelTree or Attrib, and delete the file from DOS. See http://tinyurl.com/64zc and http://tinyurl.com/64ze ) It's much easier in WinXP/2K: You can change one setting in the registry, and the swap file/page file will clear itself on every full shutdown. Nice! See http://tinyurl.com/64zj for the many ways of doing this, either manually or via a tweaking tool.

2) Saving all the parts of a web page via separate folders is one way to do it, but--- as you discovered--- it's clunky. You can avoid this problem in all Windows versions if you're running IE 5 or 6 simply by saving web pages via the "Save As" function, and selecting "MHT" in the "save as type" dialog option. An MHT file is a "web archive" that automatically puts everything--- text, graphics, etc.--- into a compact, single file. ("MHT" stands for "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension HTML." See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;221787 ) When you click on an MHT file, it loads normally into your browser, with all the graphics, etc., in place. With no need for storage in separate folders, the separate pieces of a web page can't get lost or separated!

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3) Meet Tizita, Newest Member Of The LangaList Family

We've added another child--- the eighth--- to the group of kids sponsored on an ongoing basis by LangaList Plus! subscribers. Here's a note I just got from an aid agency working in Ethiopia:

Tizita is a quiet 12 year old girl who was born in Gudoberet, a small rural village at Northern part of Shewa Region of Ethiopia, 102 miles from Addis Ababa and 24 miles from the nearest small town. She lives with her parents and six siblings in a small traditional hut (wood plastered with mud and cow dung; corrugated steel roof). The mother is a housewife and the father is trying to earn his living by farming on a small plot of land. But the product he gets is not enough to feed, educate and clothe the children. His annual income is below US$400. They have no other means of income to depend on. Therefore, the committee referred her to this project for help. Tizita is in primary school and her favourite subjects are English and Maths. Her health and school performance are good. She helps by running errands and enjoys playing skipping rope. The family belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. You will give her hope for the future.

Click to see Tizita: http://www.freetune.com/images/tizita.JPG
(If above link is slow, click here: http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/meet_tizita.htm )

Here's what's this is all about: Those of us with computers and Internet access are vastly better off than most of the world's population. Because of this, I decided that a portion of the LangaList Plus! subscription fees would be donated to registered/legitimate charities helping the underprivileged around the world. The contribution does not increase the cost of a Plus! subscription in any way; the donation is taken "off the top" of any profits. (This is described in the pages at http://www.langa.com/plus.htm  )

Tizita is the eighth child sponsored on an ongoing basis--- week in, week out--- by the collective generosity of LangaList subscribers. LangaList Plus! subscribers also have collectively contributed to emergency earthquake relief efforts in India and to funds to help the victims of the Sept 11th attacks in the US. (To see all the donations so far, click to http://www.langa.com/plus2.htm#kids )

As the year goes on, and as more readers sign up for Plus! subscriptions, I hope we'll be able to sponsor more children and assist other charities around the world.

Special Thanks: Last November, LangaList reader and software author Sanjay Singh offered to donate part of the sales of his "Quickfile" tool to help us support another child. (Quickfile is an add-in for Outlook that lets you easily move emails to various folders without losing track of where they came from, so your contact info remains intact; and more. The software's fully described at http://www.addins4outlook.com/quickfile .) True to his word, Sanjay sent me a generous contribution last month, and that meant we could accelerate the collective LangaList giving, and help a child--- Tizita--- sooner than we could otherwise. Thank you, Sanjay!

Graham Greene once said, "There is always a moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in...." If you're already a LangaList Plus subscriber, thank you! You can feel good about giving back a little to those less fortunate, and opening "a door to the future" for a child in otherwise-desperate circumstances.

If you're not yet a Plus! subscriber check it out: With a Plus! subscription, you can not only help yourself make the most of your hardware, software and time online--- but you also can help those less fortunate (like Tizita) make the most of their very lives. Thanks for your help!

http://www.langa.com/plus.htm

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4) "TinyURL's" Cool New Feature

You may have noticed that I'm using "TinyURL" a lot more these days.

TinyURL is a donationware service that lets you turn a hideously long URL into a much shorter version: You input the long URL on the TinyURL site, and it spits back a very small redirection link in return. The TinyURL server remembers the long URL, and sends people there when they click on the shortened TinyURL version.

For example, In the last issue, instead of
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=password&num=50&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=
&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=langa.com&safe=off

I simply gave
http://tinyurl.com/60u7 , which took readers to exactly the same place.

Quite a difference, eh? <g>

I've been using TinyURL in limited increments because I wasn't sure that their servers would be able to handle the influx of clicks--- as you know, a *lot* of sites have died under the onslaught of LangaList readers. <g> But I haven't seen any problems to date, so their setup seems to be pretty solid.

Something new: They've added a toolbar item that makes using their service even easier. The item resides as an entry in IE's "Links" toolbar. Whenever you're on a page with a long URL, you just click the TinyURL link on the toolbar, and then two things happen: You're instantly taken to the TinyURL page; and the URL of the page you were on is automatically converted for you and copied into your clipboard. You can then paste the short, TinyURL into email, or wherever you want. It couldn't be easier. Literally one click, and you're ready to past the shortened URL.

TinyURL, and the toolbar addon, are at http://tinyurl.com/ . Highly recommended!

(Note: If you're going to use their service, please consider tossing them a few bucks via their donation link so they can keep things going, and preserve the links you've created. I donated, and will again, regularly, to help defray the bandwidth consumed by the LangaList's use of their service.)

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5) More On Defeating XP's Admin Password

In "Speaking Of Passwords..." ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-02-20.htm#4 ) we talked about how you could use the "recovery console" on a Win2K boot CD and bypass the need to enter a password to get at the XP files.

Several readers had, um, interesting comments:

Ah Fred, this isn't a security problem, it is the way almost ALL operating systems work. You can put a boot disk in almost any computer running almost any operating system and bypass the passwords. Just give me a boot disk to your Linux machine and I'll have full access to it in under a minute.

Security is not just about the software, it is also about properly securing the hardware too. Your notice revealed nothing new, anyone that knows much about computer would already know this. All it did was to try and tarnish Microsoft's image more by not properly informing everyone that the vast majority of computer systems (no matter what OS it runs) act this way. --- Hank Hagquist

As we stated in the original item, if a hacker has physical access to a PC, he or she can eventually hack in. Heck, you don't even need a boot CD or Recovery Console for that. A DOS boot floppy and an NTFS file reader tool (there are many available for free, on the web) will do it.

But that at least requires a little rudimentary knowledge and skill. Popping in a Win2K setup CD is brainlessly simple: You just reboot, follow the Recovery Console prompts, and you're in.

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6) Don't Make Me Beg! 8-)

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win $10,000 for your trouble (full details also available via this link): http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182

Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... and more. To have a shot at winning, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a $30 Gift Certificate! (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

Either way, thank you, and good luck!

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7) Old Hoaxes Never Die

There's a PhD thesis in this for someone, on the cyclic nature of internet hoaxes: They pop up, ensnare millions, get debunked, and then go dormant for a time, only to resurface later and fool a new crop of victims. It almost seems to follow the pattern of a natural disease when an organism is infected, develops immunity, and then gradually loses immunity until reinfection is possible.... But I digress.

A *lot* of readers have asked me about an email now making the rounds. We've actually covered this hoax twice before in this newsletter, but enough time has elapsed (I guess) so that people have lost their immunity again. The hoax goes something like this:

PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK: I learned a computer trick today  that's really ingenious in it's simplicity. Just received it from a friend. As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets into your computer it heads straight for your  e-mail address book, and sends itself to everyone in there, thus infecting all your friends and associates. This trick won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread further, and it will alert you to the fact, that the worm has gotten into your system.

Here's what you do first, open your address book and click on "new contact," Just as you would do if you were adding a new friend to your list of e-mail addresses.  In the window where you would type your friend's first name, type in AAAAAAA. Also use address AAAAAAA@a.aaa  Now. Here's what you've done and why it works The name AAAAAAA will be placed at the top of your address book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to send itself to all your friends. But, when it tries to send itself to AAAAAAA, It will be undeliverable because of the phony e-mail address you entered. If the first attempt fails (which it will because of the phony address), the worm goes no further and your friends will not be infected.

Here's the second great advantage of this method: If an e-mail cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your In Box almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an e-mail telling you that an e-mail addressed to AAAAAAA could not be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it! Pretty slick, huh?

Slick? No. In fact, it's all but pointless. First, it only works on some systems and against the oldest, simplest worms. Second--- and this is the main issue--- it only works AFTER you've been infected. By the time this trick does anything at all, your system is already thoroughly compromised; the worm has already done whatever damage it's going to do, and is already trying to propagate out to the next group of victims.

It's much better to prevent worms from reaching your system or going active in the first place. If you do that, not only will you prevent the mass-remailing, but you'll also prevent the other damage that's often a part of worms.

But you don't have to take my word for it:
http://tinyurl.com/53lo
http://www.europe.f-secure.com/hoaxes/0000hoax.shtml
http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=99213
http://www.lbl.gov/ICSD/Security/vulnerabilities/hoax.html
http://vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=263&page=3&cat=Poor%20advice%20from%20non-experts
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2821795,00.html
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-05-30.htm#1
 

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8) More Reader Sites!

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the hundreds and hundreds of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://www.langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site From Among All Listed
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm

Hardware Hell
http://hardwarehell.com/articles/bootclean.shtml

The Carolina Cam Network
http://www.carolinacam.com/

Allen's Winappslist
http://www.winappslist.com/

CashCow
http://www.cashcow-biz.com/

DeadAnt
http://www.skuz.net/mink/deadant.htm

The Health Experience
http://www.heac.com/

Rastetter family web
http://www.familyradioiswrong.com/rastettersonline.html

"Master Of None"
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~davepjco/index.html

Z's Social Worker Connections
http://tfn.net/~zelda/

Choice Out-of-Print Books
http://www.eclectic-books.com.au/MyPage/Computers.htm

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9) "Image on a Web Page Appears As a Large Red X"

This reader sent two emails in quick succession--- he solved his own IE6 problem before I ever had a chance to read his first message!

Fred, Great newsletter -- I have been a subscriber since it started.

Maybe you could give me a direction on a problem I am having with IE 6. My system runs Windows 98SE and I upgraded the browser several months ago. It works fine on the internet, but when I try to view pages offline it won't show .GIF images. I have even tried to directly view a .GIF file by opening it with IE (which used to work). All I see is the placeholder box. It will show .JPG images fine offline. I have all of the updates that MS has offered for the browser and for Win 98SE. This is a problem now that some help files are written in HTML... I can't see the images within those files. Thanks for any light you might be able to shed on this weird problem. Tucker Wiard

===== (a short while later) ====

Fred: I wrote to you this morning about IE6 not displaying .GIF pictures offline. It turned out to be a setting in the registry and I thought you might wish to share the info. The setting

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.gif

"content type" was incorrectly set to "image/jpeg" instead of the correct "image/gif". Changing this setting made everything work correctly. I used your suggestions to others to use Google to search the MS information base. The article for this fix was #307239. Keep up the great work on your newsletter. ---Tucker

Thank for sharing the answer, Tucker!

The issue is generally described as "Image on a Web Page Appears As a Large Red X" and can affect both GIF and JPG images. The fix is fully described at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307239

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10) Just For Grins

Cary A Talbot sends along this item--- one of those that makes me think "I wish I'd said that..." <g>

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Excellent Primer On RAM
  (everything you need to know about RAM)
   

• HotFix For "Connection Woes"
  (Four different possible causes, and a "hotfix")
   

• Identity Theft Prevention And Remedies
  (amazingly complete "Fraud Victim Information" resource)

The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you lose? Check out the details: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

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See you next issue!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)

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Disclaimer: http://www.langa.com/legal.htm  In brief: All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. Neither Langa Consulting LLC, nor its employees nor contributors are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from your choosing to use any information presented here.

This newsletter is a service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright © 2003 Fred Langa / Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved. LangaList: ISSN 1533-1156

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