InBox

By DON McALLISTER

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

Q. Grisoft's free antivirus software grisoft is working well for Denny: "What do you say to people who tell you, 'If it's free, it can't be as good or thorough as ones you pay for'?" With free software, the creator usually refuses any responsibility if things go wrong, whereas with a paid service, you often have a comeback.

A. Usually the makers of paid versions of software have more resources available for development and updates, so are more responsible to their customers for performance.

But it's not always that black and white.

As a rule, business users should stick with paid-for software, but for personal use, shareware and freeware can be a great alternative.

Often developers put out a freeware version of their software and later encourage you to move up to a paid-for "professional edition".

What's great about this approach is the "try before you buy" process which lets you decide if the software is any good.

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Q. Jackie has created a PowerPoint presentation and intends to email it to several contacts. Unfortunately she's aware that several of these contacts don't have PowerPoint installed. "How do I send it so they can read it?" she asks.

A. It's easy, Jackie. Open your presentation, click File/Save as Webpage. This way everyone can view it in Internet Explorer.

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Q. Jim's Internet Explorer start page has been hijacked to istarthere.com. "Help!"

A. A known hijacker which normally results in porn sites or www.globesearch.com is now hijacking people to a new site: www.istarthere.com.

It can be identified by using the MSCONFIG startup tab. Go to Start/Run, type "msconfig" and hit enter. Click on the Startup tab and look for "gshp" which loads "zzgshp.vbs" and "winsys.vbs".

If it's there, get Ad-aware from: www.lavasoftusa.com to annihilate this intruder.

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Q. Karl's Microsoft Word for Windows XP spell-check works, but only when he clicks Tools/Spelling and Grammar. He finds this very time consuming!

A. Hit F7, Karl (the shortcut key for spell-check), or enable the spell-checker to run all the time. Go to Tools/Options/Spelling and Grammar and tick "Check spelling as you type".


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