PuterGeek.Com News Issue # 48 - A FREE newsletter for Win95, Win98, and WinME users!

One email I received really startled me. It has to do with the ScanRegW page http://www.putergeek.com/scanreg/ At the moment this is the second most popular page on the PuterGeek.Com website. Over 2900+ people have viewed that page and no one has mentioned a mistake I made ... til today!

R.C. wrote "... created first shortcut, but when I tried to name it Scanreg /Fix and clicked
finish, up pops a window saying: "The shortcut name you entered either
contained characters that are invalid for file names, or was too long".
Please, what is the problem?"

I ... ahem ... screwed up here! In my haste to get the page up, I said to name the shortcut "ScanReg /Fix" and "ScanReg /Opt". Well, a forward-slash "/" is an illegal character for a file or shortcut name. I meant to say "ScanReg - FIX" and ScanReg - Opt". The screenshots were even wrong!!

The moral here is nobody's perfect. So please, if you find a goof on one of my pages, please let me know! An email to webmaster@putergeek.com will get the job done. I want all the info I put on the website to be as correct as possible.

Here's an old tip you may not be aware of. When you buy a new replacement mouse it often comes with a driver disk. Did you know that not only do you NOT need to use the install disk, but sometimes it'll actually foobar your system completely!

Now I'm not talking about a high-end mouse with special features, if you don't use the disk in this case you won't get all the goodies you bought the mouse for.

I'm talking about your basic two or three button el cheapo mouse... you know, the $4.99 special. The "install" disk that comes with these mice is a DOS install disk! All it has on it is a DOS driver, and it'll make changes to your config.sys or your autoexec.bat file to boot! In this case, you're better off just swapping out your old mouse for the new one... don't mess with the mouse driver.

Intelli-mouse, Logitech, touchpads, and so on do need to have their drivers installed to work correctly. In short ... RTFM (Read The Freaking Manual).

An English professor wrote the words,
"Woman without her man is nothing" on the blackboard
and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.

The men wrote: "Woman, without her man, is nothing."
The women wrote: "Woman! Without her, man is nothing."

--Flip the switch on your electronic holiday shopping
Will your shopping be electronically inclined? Are you looking for a stereo? Is that car or personal? Are we talking home theater? Or is this about getting connected? Cordless. Wireless. Two-way. It's all here, and the binoculars and cameras, too.
http://go.msn.com/bql/eshop/6.asp

--Get your desktop in the holiday mood
It's that time of year again when we deck our halls with boughs of holly. Don't forget your computer! Get into the holiday spirit with these fun downloads that put snowflakes, lights, and holiday tunes on your desktop.
http://www.microsoft.com/insider/mi/pfholidown.htm

--Your new best friend: "Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Expert Companion"
Get optimum performance from your desktop. "Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Expert Companion," which includes a CD-ROM, explores lesser-known system features and capabilities, customization options, troubleshooting strategies, and more.
http://www1.fatbrain.com/store.cl?p=mswindows&s=52084&partner=mswindows

If you recall, I recommended that you NOT install Internet
Explorer 5.5 specifically because it "breaks" Office 2000's
Detect & Repair feature. Well, I'll stick by that
recommendation in general, but (as always!) there's more to
the story.

A couple of 'Softies in Product Support wrote and pointed
me to a Knowledge Base article that I missed:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q279/1/77.ASP
. I'm forever indebted to both of you. Thanks! (Wish I
could rely on that kind of quick, accurate response from
other parts of The Microsoft Empire. <sigh>)

The article states, quite simply (and I believe accurately)
that the "Error 1931" bug only occurs on some systems, and
not on others. Microsoft has a fix - a hot patch - for the
bug, but they only recommend that folks install it if they
absolutely need it, because it hasn't been fully tested on
a wide variety of machines. The Knowledge Base article
tells you how to contact Microsoft and ask for the patch -
it is NOT available for download. The internal (Microsoft
Eyes Only) version of that Knowledge Base article tells the
whole story:

"The version of the Vgx.dll (Vector Graphics Extensions)
file that is included with Internet Explorer 5.5 has two
problems. The checksum is wrong and the file is marked as a
Beta binary file. The version of the Vgx.dll file that is
included with Internet Explorer 5.5 is actually the
following Office 10 Beta version:

"When you are using Office 2000 SR-1 and you perform a
Detect and Repair operation, the Vgx.dll file is noted as
an incorrect binary file and Office 2000 tries to replace
it. On a Windows 2000-based computer, the System File
Protection (SFP) feature prevents Office 2000 from
replacing the binary file.

"Although the file is a Beta version that should not have
been included with the final release of Internet Explorer
5.5, the Office 2000 Global_Office_VGX component should be
conditionalized not to be installed on Windows 2000 because
Internet Explorer should never attempt to replace a
protected system file in Windows 2000.

"If this hotfix is not posted for public download [meaning
a public URL for this hotfix is not provided within the
body of this article], then distribution requires technical
lead, escalation team member, or manager approval and the
following information applies: To receive the hotfix,
customers must be encountering the bug as described above.
You must track the customers you send this to and supply
them with the next service pack when it becomes available
(if a service pack is released). This is scheduled to be
included with [Internet Explorer 5.5] Service Pack 2."

So somebody at Microsoft screwed up and put the wrong
version of vgx.dll in IE 5.5. The correct version will go
into IE 5.5 SP2. And you can get the hot fix if you need
it, but you have to bellyache a bit, and you have to
understand that it hasn't been fully tested. Not a big
deal, once you know what's really happening, eh? I often
wonder why Microsoft goes to such lengths to hide minor
problems. <sigh>

Anyway, I'll repeat my recommendation: if you're using IE
5.01 Service Pack 1 (see
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ie501SP1.htm
), stick with it. IE 5.5 isn't worth the headaches: all it
really offers is print preview, and you can live without
that. On the other hand, if you have IE 5.5 installed and
it's working fine, don't sweat it. Life's too short. In my
experience, you won't have any problems, as long as Office
2000 Detect & Repair is working OK, and your machine hasn't
gone up in flames so far.

If you have IE 5.5 and want to uninstall it, check out Ed
Bott's detailed instructions at
http://windows.about.com/compute/windows/library/weekly/aa092100a.htm
. You folks who wrote in with problems concerning vgx.dll
and unexplained BSDs (Blue Screens of Death) that are
apparently tied to IE 5.5 should try Ed's approach.

For what it's worth... that Knowledge Base article Q279177
is hidden very, very well. You can search on just about any
combination of keywords that you (or at least I!) can
imagine, and it won't appear. I know - I spent forever
trying to find it. So if there's a chance you're going to
need the patch, click on the link above now and bookmark
it.

No More AltaVista Free Internet Access
----------------------------------------------------------------
AltaVista announced yesterday that December 10 would be the last day they
offered free Internet access. Apparently their provider, 1stUp, is going out
of business. 1stUp was also the provider for TheSimpsons.com and
MyPoints.com free access. 1stUp and AltaVista are both owned by the same
parent company, CMGI.
This is just another in a string of problems in the free access market.
Freewwweb, Spinway, and WorldSpy have all been acquired lately by other
companies.

The DICT Development Group has created a site that has access to numerous
dictionary databases such as Webster's 1913 Revised Unabridged Dictionary,
WordNet's Lexical Database, and the CIA World Fact Book.

If any of you haven't rated this newsletter on Infojump.com www.infojump.com
please do so now. Think of it as a way to thank me for putting out this
newsletter. You can either click on the link here;
http://www.infojump.com/cgi-bin/rate?id=9024&pts=5&src=link%2C9024
Or, if you'd rather give me a lower score, you can find the rating link on
the top of most any page on the website :-)

In this week's "Explorer" column, I recount how AOL6 took my
perfectly good, secure, five-element networking setup and changed it
to an INsecure 16-element networking setup. Worse, it installed an
unusual (VPN--virtual private networking) technology for reasons
unknown and unexplained. Worst of all, AOL made no mention of any of
these changes: I only found them because I went looking for them. My
guess is that most users never would even notice that AOL had made
major -- and potentially very unsafe -- modifications to their
networking setup. (See
http://www.winmag.com/columns/explorer/2000/25.htm )

Also, in that column, I'll show you how AOL insists on setting up a
VPN (Virtual private networking) connection that potentially gives
AOL access to your files and to other computers on your LAN (if
you're on a LAN).

None of AOL's help systems or human support techs could tell me
anything at all about AOL's use of VPN--- which is strange, because
AOL has offered optional VPN services since at least version 4. But
AOL6 is the first version that force-feeds VPN to you, unasked-for,
and with no option to decline; and none of the AOL support people or
mechanisms can explain why.

     [R]egarding the VPN technology that AOL6 is installing.
     First and foremost, I had a similar experience with AOL
     technical support wherein the technician didn't know or
     understand VPN technology. After pointing him to the
     Microsoft site and explaining it in layman's terms, he
     concluded that it was unnecessary and should be removed
     from the system. When I explained that it prevented AOL
     from connecting, he found that "very strange." [I]
     concluded that it could really only be used for one or two
     things:

     1. Create a secure connection to the AOL server via TCP/IP
     on a LAN with broadband internet access. This is done in an
     attempt to subvert various security measures implemented by
     IT staff so that a connection can be created regardless of
     existing firewall/proxy security services.

     In my mind, not only are both scenarios pointless but they
     are potentially harmful (as you noted in your article).
     Short of that, I really cannot come up with any sort of
     reason for using VPN technology.

     I figured that in order for AOL6.0 software to accomplish
     this change from AOL 5.0 users to AOL 6.0, they had to
     enable file sharing. Yeh, it's all part of AOL ANYWHERE
     strategy, but AOL 6.0 is mandating these significant
     changes in their software without telling their customers
     nor providing the information through it's help system,
     it's website, it's companion documentation, it's customer
     service, etc...

Because the File Sharing and VPN are installed together, one
reasonable conclusion is that both Steve and Joel are right: Perhaps
AOL wants to synchronize its files with yours, and is setting itself
up to do so "under the covers" via VPN, without your knowledge.

But once any shared files are accessible via a network connection,
*all* your shared files--- up to the entire contents of your hard
drive--- may also be accessible. Depending on what security measures
you've set up, it may be ridiculously easy for someone to hack in and
take whatever they want from your system.

I admit this is guesswork because AOL won't or can't explain itself.
It won't or can't say why it needs an ongoing live VPN connection
between you and its servers. It won't or can't say why it wants
access to your files and LAN traffic.

I seriously doubt that AOL is malevolent or has evil intent. But I do
believe that AOL's programming abilities are lackluster at best, and
thus I will not entrust my online security to them. Plus, even if
AOL's intentions are completely benign, AOL6 users may well become an
irresistible target for crackers who wish to try to exploit the
software's needlessly complex and potentially insecure setups.

{Karaoke on your komputer} Beer goes well with pizza, pretzels, and peanuts. Little did you know, the 'beer component' is an absolute necessity when it comes to karaoke. It thrives on intoxication. If you don't believe me, try singing 'Endless Love' in front of a room filled with sober people. I mean, try singing with MY voice. Ah yes, now add a little alcohol to the mix (no pun intended) and you end up with twelve people singing the same song in ten different keys. It's fun -- and it's also free with this MIDI playin', lyric displayin', rootin' tootin' program. A few sample songs are included, or you can search for (and save) files directly from the Web site. Before you know it, you'll be singing like John Lennon... okay, Ringo Starr.

"For people who wish to know the uptime of their computer. [It] records the record uptime and indicates the time you need to beat the uptime. dduptime is only for informative purposes and uses [few] resources." How long has it been since your last reboot? More utilities are available from the site: DDCRYPT (for file encryption and decryption), RBR (to aid in 'Recycle Bin' renaming), and WHOIS (registered domain name record viewer).

PuterGeek.Com News
Issue # 48

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Last Revised: 12/10/2000