Tips and Tricks

Remove Messenger from XP
Start/Run/RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

Remove MSN Messenger from Outlook Express and Prevent the Delay
Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Outlook Express. Value Name: Hide Messenger, Data
Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value), Value Data: (2 = remove messenger). Create a new DWORD
value, or modify the existing value, called 'Hide Messenger' and set the value to 2.

Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

To change the new mail notification sound for Outlook such as "You've got mail":
* Open Sounds in your Windows Control Panel.
* Select the New Mail Notification sound.
* Specify the file of your choice for it.
* Click OK.
You can download some event sounds from: http://www.ilovewavs.com/Events/GotMail/GotMail.htm

Routers
When setting up a wireless network at home, make sure that you change the default password on your
router or access point. Evil people can easily hack your network if they know (or guess) the model or
make of the device.

Posting Email Address
Many automatic spamming programs are programmed to constantly search the Internet for email
addresses and then send out whatever they're hawking without discretion. So if you want to have your
email address posted on your website but want to avoid receiving large amounts of spam, use an image
of your email address (i.e. jpg or gif image) instead of text.

And do not make the image of the email address a "mailto" link either, as some programs can pick those
out of the html code as well.
-- Kerry

Note: You can find a slick text-to-image email address converter at http://digitalcolony.com/02/maskemail/inc/genEmailMask.asp.

Falling hard drives
Some failing hard drives can be coaxed into a few more minutes or hours of work if they are cooler than
usual. One method is to put the hard drive in a freezer for a short amount of time (15 - 60 minutes),
preferably inside of a air-tight bag to reduce the possibility of picking up moisture from the freezer.
Another trick is to spray a can of compressed air on the hard drive while it's in use. (Compressed air is
very cold.)

It's unlikely that the drive will work for very long, but this can be enough if you just need a few critical
files off of the drive.

However, this is a "last chance" trick, because freezing the drive may damage it. If you have the money,
sending the drive off to a reputable data recovery company is a much better idea.