Q. Recently I downloaded an e-mail shareware program called The Bat. It did not suit my particular circumstances so I uninstalled it. Now, every time I attempt to open an attachment to an e-mail received on Outlook Express, I get the message, “Cannot find THEBAT.EXE. This program is needed for opening files of the type `Internet E-mail Message.'” I don’t mean to be cynical, but it looks as if the people offering The Bat have corrupted one of my files to force me to use their program. Any suggestions as to how to get The Bat out of my belfry?
Bob Price @megsinet.net
A. Flash my name on the clouds and call me caped crusader, Mr. P. The good news is I’ve got your answer; the bad news is that the fix is going to sound like something the Riddler hatched. The Bat changed your computer’s registry or system settings to make it your default e-mail program instead of Outlook Express, the default e-mail in Windows.
So you need to re-install Outlook Express in order to restore the changed settings. But, because you still have Outlook Express loaded on your computer, you first must uninstall it before the operating system will allow you to reinstall it.
Here’s your BatAnswer: Click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and chose the folder called Control Panel. Pick Add/Remove Programs from the list that pops up. Then pick the tab Windows Setup. You will find a list of all the Windows 98 operating system components in the next display. Scroll down to Outlook Express and remove the check in the box next to it. Then click the Apply button.
Now all you need to do is repeat the process, but this time put a check mark in the now empty box next to Outlook Express.
The software will reset itself to make Outlook Express your default e-mailer quicker than you can say KAPOW!
Q. I just bought an Iomega Zip Drive, and every time I turn my computer on two windows pop up. One asks me if my Zip is on and the other thanks me for buying the drive. How do I get rid of these windows?
Tom Hassenauer @msn.com
A. Iomega makes great removable storage devices, but the company would do us all a favor by zipping up those registration nags that it installs when customers set up a new Zip drive. To remove them you need to drag the registration icon out of your computer’s Startup folder.
To do this you can right-click on the Start button and call up the Explore tool. This will bring up a display with two panes. Click the Programs folder at the top of the one on the right and go down and open the folder called Startup.
Now all you need to do is drag the Iomega icon for those annoying ticklers onto the desktop. Don’t trash it until you’re sure you’ve removed the right one.
Q. My department has an antique DOS-based computer with a large number of data files in PCFile format that I would like to transfer to a newer Windows-based computer. As the old box does not have Windows, is there an easy way to do the data transfer without hours of floppy transfers? I have a 100 megabyte Zip drive, and I don’t think I can use WinZip in this case.
Jay Shannon, M.D. @cchil.org
A. On the contrary, Doc, if you check the software that came with your Zip drive you probably will find a floppy disk that lets you connect the Zip to old PCs and use them with the same DOS commands that run floppy disks and hard drives.
If you misplaced the DOS disk you can easily download the needed drivers from www.iomega.com.
As you can see, this ability to move data and software from older machines onto newer ones remains perhaps the strongest single feature that these popular storage devices continue to enjoy even at a time when far larger and faster writeable/rewriteable CDs are growing in popularity.
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Q. If I leave my powerful HP Pavilion on standby, I can “open” it OK for a few days but after that it seems to clog up and I have to restart or shut down. After that, it behaves again for several days and then bogs down again. I cleared the history, but it still acts congested if I leave it on for a few days. Any thoughts?
Gayle Johnson @ netscape.net
A. Your computer might look dead to the world when it’s sleeping on standby, but its dim-witted little silicon brain cells continue buzzing in the background, continually polling all the possible input ports (mouse, keyboard, etc.) to see if it needs to come back to life.
In many cases PCs running Windows 95/98 and such also are set to run regularly scheduled programs such as disk defragmenting. The result of all this invisible activity is that the computer’s resources gradually get depleted. This happens because when many programs are shut down they don’t give the operating system back all the memory they were using while running.
To track how your resources get bled over time you might want to activate the Resource Meter in Windows. Click on the Start button, then Programs, then Accessories and System Tools.
Q. I need your expertise in a problem that I got a few months ago when I tried to use Norton AntiVirus to get rid of a virus called “Happy Worm : )”; it made me anything but happy. Now every time my computer starts up I get an error message in a little gray box saying, “Could not load or run `uninstallms.exe’ specified in the WIN.INI file; make sure the file exists on your computer or remove reference to it in the WIN.INI file.” I then press OK again and the computer is just fine. How can I get rid of these messages? Do I have to reload Windows?
Please help! I have been meaning to write you for the last four months and every time these messages come up, I think I should write Jim and he could fix it. Can you?
Kathy Smith @aol.com
A. Once again Peter Norton’s AntiVirus package has violated the canon of healers everywhere: First do no harm. All too often these heavily touted repair utilities leave behind glitches like yours in the process of fixing something.
Your solution, however, is simplicity itself because all you need to do is to change the settings in an obscure file called win.ini–just as that annoying and indecipherable warning box says.
Click on Start and pick Run. Type in msconfig in the command box and hit return. You will get a box with tabs at the top including win.ini.
You will need to open a number of folders that come up under win.ini until you find uninstallms.exe, which can be removed by unchecking the box at the left. Most likely you will find the gremlin in the folder called Windows. If not, take a couple of minutes searching, and you’ll soon be free of Peter Norton’s own little Happy Worm surprise.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or via snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through the column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/go/askjim