Web Coach

Net Surgery
Kindly note our e-mail address for the Web Coach section which is websurgery@express.com.pk. Please send your queries till the 15th of each month as questions after that date will be entertained in the next issue.
My computer speed is slow, when I open folders, videos, Web browser or images it takes a long time to open. I have McAfee antivirus, can you help me with this?
Altaf Hussain Shah

It could either be the virus or the antivirus on your system which is causing the problems. Since I do not know the specs of your PC, I would advice you to scan your PC online for viruses or malware. Also note that McAfee has a tendency to bog down the best of systems. You can try using give other good antivirus software like Kaspersky or NOD32 which are pretty good and light on system resources as well.

I have Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHz with 2 GB DDR2 800 MHz Ram and Intel desktop board DG43NB with 250 GB Seagate H.D.D. I am using Nvidia 9500 GT 512MB Graphics Card (OS Windows Vista Ultimate) but I am facing a problem that my pc doesn't work well. It hangs up after sometime and become normal after 20 to 30 seconds. I have changed the OS, Board, H.D.D, Ram, Data cables... but I am still facing same problem. My PC is in warranty of 3 years.
Farhan Shafiq

Now that is one souped up PC Farhan and it shouldn't be behaving the way it is. Since you have almost tried changing everything, did you ever think of going for Windows XP rather than the resource-gulping and RAM-eating Windows Vista? I am sure you'd be able to use your high end PC in a much better way rather than sticking for an OS which is nothing more than eye candy. Do give XP a try and you'd be a happier man.

My PC specifications are: Windows XP (SP2), Motherboard : Intel SE440BX-2, Processor: Intel Pentium III (448 MHz) RAM: 256 MB, Video Card: Radeon 7000/Radeon VE AGP (64 MB), HDD: 40GB (Interface: P-ATA), File System: NTFS. I need to ask the following:
1. How to compress a drive in NTFS file system and what are its pros and cons?
2. How to create a restore point?
3. How to send or forward an e-mail to multiple email IDs without releasing their e-mail IDs to one another?
4. Is there anything bad in shutting off by "hibernation"?
5. Which is the best free registry cleaner among many available at www.download.com?
6. Suggest me a free pdf to word converter except free pdf to word doc 1.1 (because its apparently free but forces to get a code per conversion from a website after first few conversions)
6. Following are some free online storage sites. Kindly tell me which has a good reputation, safe and offer longer storage and bigger space for free? www.mediafire.com, www.rapidshare.com, www.savefile.com, www.megaupload.com.
Osama Javaid

1. If you are using NTFS file system in your Windows then you can compress the files and folders in any particular drive you want. For this you don't have to download any software or plug-in. This is inbuilt facility provided by the Microsoft in Windows XP and Windows Vista. This compression technique can compress the whole hard drive partition which is selected for the compression purpose in windows.
For this you have to select a NTFS hard drive partition. Right click on it, go to properties. Under general tab you have to check the box COMPRESS FILES TO SAVE DISK SPACE. Apply it. Now a new box confirm attribute changes will open, select apply changes to sub folders and files. Now your drive has begun compression for the files and folders present in the particular NTFS hard drive partition. Now your work is done. After applying this you will find that the color of text of that NTFS hard drive partition has changed to blue, even files and folder text color which is present in that hard drive partition has changed to blue. You can apply this to any number of NTFS hard drive partitions present in your Windows XP, which saves a lot of precious memory space in your hard drive but the condition is that your file system must be in NTFS. 2. How to create a System Restore Point: Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. For Classic Start Menu: Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Click Create a restore point, and then click Next. In the Restore point description box, type a name to identify this restore point. System Restore automatically adds to this name the date and time that this Restore Point is created. To finish creating this restore point, click Create. 3. If you don't want to reveal email addresses of people while sending forwarded emails, make sure all email addresses are in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field. 4. Generally speaking, it is better to shutdown all the time. That is if you would not be working on you PC for a good deal of hours like overnight which can be 8 to 12 hours depending on your sleep cycle. Having the PC in hibernate mode means it is still powered up, though not all of the system is on. What this does is it allows you to easily go back to what you are doing the night before, and you don’t have to wait for the boot cycle to start again and search for the document you were using. However, if you have some programs, like Internet searches going on the background when you did hibernate, or place the PC in standyby mode, the CPU could still be responding to the program and this could get hot. So close most applications specially those that seek programs and tries to run applications. 5. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner is a good yet free registry cleaner, you can download it from: http://download.cnet.com/Eusing-Free-Registry-Cleaner/3000-2094_4-10521691.html. 6. Some PDF to Word Converter is a good free convertor and you can download it from: http://download.cnet.com/Some-PDF-to-Word-Converter/3000-2079_4-10836743.html?tag=mncol. 7. As for online storage I would personally recommend RapidShare and MegaUpload.

I have Windows XP, using NOD32 antivirus with latest definition files. My problem is that when I right click on the desktop and to go display properties wallpaper and screen saver tags are not shown, and only themes, appearance and settings tags are being displayed. I have also scanned my system, but no viruses found. What should I do to display wallpaper and screen saver tags in display properties?
Abdul Sattar

The missing Wallpaper and Screen Saver tabs are due to viral activity. I would advice you to scan your PC online at www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner. Here go the instructions for recovering the lost tabs: REMEDY FOR MISSING WALLPAPER TABS: -Click Start then RUN. -Type "regedit.exe" without the quotes. -Press ENTER. -When the registry window pops up, please follow this path; HKCU->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Policies->Explorer -Right click on NoThemesTab -Select "Modify" -Change the value to 0. -Follow this path; HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Policies->Explorer -Right click on NoThemesTab -Select "Modify" -Change the value to 0. -Close window to exit.
REMEDY FOR MISSING SCREENSAVER TABS: -Click Start and then Run. -Type regedit.exe in the Run dialog box. -Press ENTER -Follow this path; HKCU->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Policies->System -Right click on NoDispScrSavPage -Select "Modify" -Change the value to 0. -Follow this path; HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Policies->Explorer -Right click NoDispScrSavPage -Select Modify. -Change the value to 0. -Close window to exit. Restart your machine to apply changes.

I am using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 since 2006. I tried Adobe Photoshop CS (8.0), but I didn't like it. I want to use Adobe Photoshop CS2 or CS3. But when I installed it, it didn't accept the Serial Key (Both CS2 and CS3). Is here any good website where I can download full version (Not Trial or Portable) of Photoshop with correct serial key?
Rao Minhaj Raza

I am extremely sorry Minhaj, @internet does not support software piracy. Let me offer you a software which is free and works almost as good as Photoshop CS2 or CS3. It is called Paint.Net and is available at: www.getpaint.net, needs the Microsoft .Net framework to run.