Jim Coates is on vacation. These questions and answers first appeared last spring.
Q. I just installed Windows 98, and Windows shuts down fine, but on rebooting I am forced to get back via the ScanDisk route. Is there a fix for this problem?
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Dr. Richard Messina, Saugerties, N.Y.
A. Here’s what’s up, Doc: A component of Windows 98 called the Scheduled Tasks Agent has been set to run that pesky ScanDisk routine every time you turn on your PC. ScanDisk is a fine tool that checks the physical surface of the hard drive and the way that each bit of data is stored to ensure that everything is A-OK.
But it takes several minutes to run and can become the bane of one’s existence if the machine starts crashing a lot because Windows is set to run ScanDisk after every crash.
In your case, though, the culprit is just a bad setting you can change. Click on Start, then Programs and Accessories and System Tools. Open the icon called Scheduled Tasks and look for the one named ScanDisk. When you open that icon, you will find an option to turn off the schedule that runs the program each time the computer starts.
Q. At work I use a standard 28.8 kilobits per second modem connection for Web access and e-mail. At home I’m on a cable modem. I’d like to set up a LapLink or pcAnywhere-type hookup so I can send files between the two machines.
E-mail doesn’t work very well because of the large number of files I have to send. No one seems to know how to establish this hookup. (I even called my cable service, and they had no idea at all.) Any thoughts?
Bill Bilbro, Elk Grove Village
A. A great many Web services have sprung up to solve your quandary on moving files from work to home and back again in today’s work-everywhere-you-hang-your-hat-or-else world, Mr. B.
I favor www.mydocsonline.com, which lets users store up to 20 megabytes on the company’s server machines for free, and then charges $10 per 50 mb. You log on from either your high-speed cable modem at home or your 28.8 kbps clunker at work, and the software lets you select large numbers of files for uploading.
The great thing here is that with all of your files on a Web server, you can treat that server as though it were a huge hard drive that you can use to just access those files you need each day rather than worrying about total backups each day.
Other ways to do this are to sign up for the superb Yahoo! Briefcase service or to take advantage of the file transfer protocol services that Internet service providers (including America Online) offer their customers for storing files online.
Q. My friend just bought a Gateway computer. It came with a feature called GoBack, which allows users to restore their computer to what it was like at a previous date. If they have a computer failure, they can go back to a time when the computer was working correctly, be it a day or an hour ago. When you select the best time, it resets your computer to the configuration it was in at that time.
I believe it is a software feature. I have looked in stores but have not come across anything that seems to do what GoBack does. Do you know if there is software on the market that does this? What are its limitations?
Vincent D’Antonio, Huntsville, Ala.
A. This superb GoBack feature deserves heaps of praise. You can buy it from the distinguished software house of Adaptec (www.goback.com).
You wrote an excellent description of what the software does, Mr. D. I would add that in addition to restoring hard drives and such, GoBack lets you recover individual data files that might get deleted.
The biggest limitation is that in order to accomplish its backups, the software continually saves compressed versions of your hard drive’s contents, so the bigger the hard drive you have, the better.
The only caveat I can think of is that Microsoft’s upgrade to Windows 98, Windows ME (Millennium Edition), set to ship this summer, will include this same type of feature as part of the operating system. So buying GoBack for its $70 suggested retail price might not be the best deal if you plan to shell out $90 or so for Windows ME later this year.
Q. How about some help with Windows 98? When I used to use the Explorer feature, if I highlighted a graphic such as a .jpg or .bmp I could see a thumbnail preview image on the left side of the screen. I had to reinstall Win98, and I no longer see the preview with the .jpg. Any suggestions?
One other question: After the reinstall, when I hit Start and then Programs, all of the programs and files are now listed in the order I added them, not in alphabetical order, which I like. Can I put them in alphabetical order somehow?
Loren Doppelt, Palatine
A. Second question first. When Microsoft product managers visited me the other day to show off the newly released Windows 2000 software and the brand new Windows ME operating system, they boasted that the new OS will return to the automatic alphabetization that had been part of Windows 95. Meanwhile, you will find that Windows 98 lets you drag and drop the Start menu icons to arrange them any way you like.
On the first question, to get Windows 98 to display thumbnails of each picture as you highlight it, you need to click on the My Computer icon, pick View and click the radio box for Web style. Then be sure to click the Apply button at the bottom of the command box.
Q. I am an old-time reader of your column, and now that retirement is approaching I need some advice about what kind of computer I should buy to let me transfer all my old 78, 45 and 33 r.p.m. records and cassette tapes onto CDs.
My indecision: to buy a top-of-the-line computer now, expending $2,500 for an 800 or 900 megahertz machine with 128 megabytes of memory, 40 gigabyte hard drive, 3000 Voodoo video card and a good sound card, etc., or buy a modest 450 or 500 mHz computer now and wait for something better that may come later.
Walter Mosca @hotmail.com
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A. I’ll bet you’d just love that elegant $2,500 machine you described, Mr. W., but, fact is, that 450 mHz clunker at the other end of your decision tree will handle all the sound recording needs you describe with the simple addition of a CD-RW drive so you can transfer the music files you will be making from those records, cassettes and CDs on your hard drive.
I favor the backpack line of CD-rewriter devices from DeKalb-based Micro Solutions Inc. (www.micro-solutions.com), which can be had for just under $300 and which connect via the parallel port to any Pentium II machine.
With the rewriter up and running, all you need is software such as the $30 MusicMatch 5.0 (www.musicmatch.com), which allows you to connect your turntable or cassette player to the line-in socket on the PC sound card and will convert each tune you play into its own MP3 file for storage on a rewritable CD.
Q. I am running a Hewlett-Packard 4550z at 466 mHz with a 56 kbps modem. I am a subscriber to AOL. When I am doing any kind of work on my computer, the unit will all of a sudden sign on to AOL. It is very frustrating to be working on a spreadsheet and suddenly find yourself being signed on. I contacted AOL tech service, and they graciously suggested to delete the file global.org and then sign on and go through the setup routine again. I did this and it is still happening.
After all this, I thought I would ask someone who knows what to do.
Gene Kristoff, Highland, Ind.
A. Wow, you go to AOL tech support with a toothache and they suggest a brain transplant, which is a good comparison to wiping out that global.org file that holds all of your key America Online settings as well as the automatic-on commands.
To disable that auto sign-on, you need to do two things:
First, look for the AOL icon lurking in the System Tray in the lower right corner of your screen and right-click on it. This will bring up a menu for Auto Start settings that you can disable.
Then in the AOL software itself, click on the My AOL command at the top of the screen and chose Preferences and Auto AOL. Once there, make certain that all of your automatic e-mail sessions are canceled.
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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. If you think you’ve got a better answer to any of these questions add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/go/askjim.