By DON McALLISTER
Welcome to InBox, where we attempt to answer your internet questions.
Q. A mix of users replied to last week's "Cookie Crunching" question with interesting reasons for removing cookies.
A. Peter's was the most logical - space. He runs an old "hand-me-down" machine, which survives on a less-than-ample hard drive. By purging his cookies daily, using Window Washer, he sometimes recovers a substantial amount of precious drivespace. Many users don't like large companies recording their surfing habits. They also don't like cookies because no one really knows what's done with the information cookies collect. Another concern is that cookies may contain viruses. As far as we know, this is a fallacy. For now, cookies do not carry viruses - though, in the future, someone may find a way to infect them.
Q. "Dad shocked the family recently by popping into Dos [a pre-Windows operating system still found in older versions of Windows] and recovering a deleted file," says James.
A. Emptying the recycle bin doesn't obliterate the file and it can be restored using the Dos Undelete command. If you really want the file gone with little or no hassle, get software that overwrites free space on your drive regularly. Many demo or free "wipe" programs can be found at Tucows disk cleaners. Even then a process called layering can be used to disassemble layers of a drive and rebuild wiped data. It requires extensive expertise, but law enforcement agencies employ special technical staff for that purpose.
Q. Jo-Anne is one of several readers having a problem removing an infected file found by her antivirus program.
A. Try deleting the offender in safe mode, which switches off numerous programs and hardware leaving the bare essentials required to open Windows. Hopefully, this way the infected file will not be activated and you'll be able to remove it. Reboot the computer and hit F8 when it says Starting Windows. Select Windows Safe Mode from the menu. Once done, reboot the computer to full mode.
Q. If you run the new V92 modem, is the performance as claimed? Is it worth the update, or do the claims fall flat when applied to Telecom's lines? Several readers considering the update have been asking these questions. We'd like to hear from V92 users about access speeds.
Send us your web questions.
InBox
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