Inbox

By DON McALLISTER

Welcome to InBox, where we attempt to answer your internet questions.

Q. More information for Windows XP users who find their computer is slowing down.

A. The folks at Redmond are saying very little about slower performance after you install the "811493" security patch on a computer running Windows XP Service Pack 1. One of the solutions Microsoft suggests is to temporarily turn off real-time antivirus scanning. Not something I'd recommend. I chose removal of the security patch (another suggested solution) via control panel/add remove programs. I'd rather kill the patch than gain a virus. Inbox is keen to hear from you if you've found a better way to deal with this problem.

Q. Some more information on anti-spam solutions.

A. Death2spam means exactly that. It's a Kiwi server-based labelling service that allows your mail filters to identify spam easily and it works with all email software.

The web page interface is clunky, but Richard Jowsey from Death2spam says improvements are in the pipeline. Costing $US39 a year, it's in the high price bracket, but using the free 30-day demo for a couple of days while tweaking personal settings proves its potential. Best of all, it now works with Xtra (due to clever Death2Spam solutions).

If you're an Xtra customer and have some views on Xtra's policy to limit user's email collection, we would like to hear from you.

Q. Roger was forced to reinstall Windows recently and although he had the foresight to backup his email, his favourites backup wasn't up to date and he lost a few.

A. Yes, that's frustrating, Roger. To avoid losses in the future, always regularly back up Favourites and email to a folder within "My Documents". This way when you do a backup to external disk you need only save that folder with documents, music files, favourites and email in one action.

Q. Collin tried a solution from inbox on May 9 to stop Windows 98 booting to a black and white DOS menu, but found it doesn't work in Windows 95.

A. No, the early versions of Windows 95 don't have "msconfig.exe", Collin, but you can still download it from Msconfig.


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