Reader question of the week:
Each week or so, I answer a question sent by readers. Keep scrolling down this page to see all the questions I've answered recently; my Tips page has even more answers.Securely Erasing a PC's Hard Drive
Q: I’m donating my old PC to charity. How can I wipe off all my old data, including any credit card numbers, tax information and household budgets?Deleting everything on your hard drive, or reformatting your hard drive doesn’t truly eliminate its information. Many data recovery specialists can still recover the files, a fact handy to know if you’ve accidentaly wiped out your entire hard drive.
To really erase your information, you need to write new information on top of it. In today’s world of exponentially increasing identify theft, many free programs on the Internet offer to overwrite your data with zeroes or random numbers.
Some programs overwrite it many times, truly smashing the data. The Department of Defense 5220.22-M specifications call for data to be overwritten three times with different characters each time. The best data killers write over your data seven times, but that’s probably overkill unless you're James Bond.
The free program Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) (http://www.dban.org/download) does a fantastic job of detecting hard drive from a wide variety of manufacturers, and scrubbing them completely clean of data. DBAN works by creating either a bootable floppy, CD or DVD that you place in your PC’s disk drive. When you restart your PC, it loads from the disk, not the hard drive, letting DBAN do its work. It renders your data useless, both to you and the vast majority of data recovery specialists.
Once you wipe the drive clean, reinstall your copy of Windows, place your original Windows CD into the box with your PC, and ship them both to a charity, knowing your TurboTax files won’t fall into the hands of strangers.
(The above information is taken from my book, PCs: The Missing Manual.)
The Missing Language Bar
Q: I write in Spanish in my computer, so I installed the Language Bar from Vista's Control Panel. The Language Bar let me switch easily from English to Spanish keyboard layouts. Two days ago, the icons Language Bar's "ES" and "EN" buttons vanished from my Taskbar.How do I put them back?
A: Since you've already installed Vista's Language Bar, it should be easy to put the bar's buttons back onto Vista's Taskbar.
Right-click a blank portion of the Taskbar; when the pop-up menu appears, choose Toolbars, and select Language Bar from the options.
Windows Messenger not working on XP Home SP1
Q: I'm stumped...I have Windows XP Home Service Pack 1 installed on my computer, yet I can't seem to send or receive instant messages. Whenever I try to sign on to Windows Messenger I receive this message:Signing in to .NET Messenger Service failed because the Service is not compatible with the version of the program.
Huh? Any ideas?
A: Your version of Windows Messenger is out of date, and Microsoft won't
allow it to connect to its network. (Yes, Microsoft could have saved a lot of time by rewording its error message to say exactly that.)
To solve the problem, download Windows Messenger 5.1, the latest version. Install the new version, and you'll be able to send and receive messages once again.
Turning off Vista's Magnifier
Q: Please help me, as the split screen in Vista is driving me nuts. Somehow I triggered a magnifier, which now comes up at the top, splitting my screen. The movement in this half screen drives me nuts. How can I turn it off?A: Vista's Magnifier, seen below, places a large magnifying bar across your screen's top. The magnifier enlarges the area around your mouse pointer, helping visually challenged people point and click the right spots on Vista's buttons, boxes, and windows.
Vista's
Magnifier is easy to turn on by accident, unfortunately, as it's listed in a helpful-sounding category
called "Make things on the screen larger."Once turned on, though, the magnifier is difficult to turn off, as it's hidden deeply in a little-used area of the Control Panel.
If you're stuck with a huge magnifying glass covering the top portion of your screen, here's how to turn it off:
- Click the Start button and choose Control Panel
- Click Ease of Access, then choose Optimize Visual Display.
- Click to remove the checkmark from "Turn On Magnifier."
- Click the Save button.
Retrieving a lost Windows XP Administrator password
Q: We had a death in the family, and I inherited a Dell Vostro PC with Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 2. Unfortunately, I cannot get into any of the administrator properties under User Accounts because I do not know the previous owner's passwords. Is there some way I can reset the computer back to its original state or reset the administrator passwords or something so that I can make myself the administrator?A: Here's a short segment from my book, PCs: The Missing Manual, that helps people retrieve lost or forgotten administrator passwords:
If somebody else owns an administrator account on the PC, she can remove the password from your (or any other) account by opening the Control Panel's User Accounts area, selecting an account, and selecting "Remove the password."
Note: Resetting the password also prevents your access to any of your email that’s encrypted, any Web site passwords saved on your PC, and any encrypted files.
If you've forgotten the password to your PC's only administrator’s account, you’re still not out of options. Try either of these tricks, depending on whether you use Windows XP Home or Professional.
- Windows XP Home. Restart (Start -> Turn Off Computer -> Restart) your PC. Immediately press F8 repeatedly until the Boot Mode menu appears. Start Windows XP in troubleshooting mode by choosing Safe Mode. When the Windows log on screen appears, a new user account called Administrator appears at the top. Log on with that account, which rarely needs a password. Once you're in, reset the password on your User Account.
- Windows XP Professional. When Windows XP's log on screen appears, press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice, quickly. Type Administrator, leave the password blank, and you're usually in. Head for the User Accounts area to remove the password from your user account.
Bringing a Recycle Bin back to the Vista desktop
Q: I accidentally deleted my Recycle Bin icon in Windows Vista. How do I get it back? I don't want to do a System Restore, and it's a brand new computer.A: Like Windows XP, Windows Vista lets you customize your Desktop, including the icons living on its turf. If your Recycle Bin is missing, then follow these steps to put it back in place.
- Right-click on your Desktop and choose Personalize.
- Click "Change Desktop Icons" located near the window's upper left corner.
- When the Desktop Icons Settings window appears, click the Recycle Bin box, and click OK to close the window.
Printing a page on this Web site
Q: Perhaps on your web site you
could install a "print" function for corrections so that we can print
them and insert the hard copy in the book for reference?A: That's a good idea, as the Web page for each of my books contains a detailed list of corrections. (Nobody's perfect.) However, you can easily print any page by clicking your browser's File button and choosing Print. When printed, the page loses its images and prints only the page's text, conserving your printer's ink.
To see what any Web page will look like when printed, click File from your browser and choose Print Preview.
Microsoft discontinues Windows XP
Q: I keep reading that Microsoft is planning to phase out support of Windows XP later this year. Sad to say my computer is old, and it will need just about everything upgraded to run the most basic version of Vista. The upgrades would cost me more than a new PC with Vista installed.So, when Microsoft stops supporting XP, what should I do to keep the computer operating without problems?
A: Don't worry about what you read about Microsoft killing off Windows XP. Sure, Microsoft won't sell Windows XP after June 30, 2008. But that doesn't mean they'll stop supporting it. Microsoft will still support XP until April, 2009. And Microsoft will still offer security patches until 2014.
Chances are, you'll be itching for a new PC way before then. And by 2014, Microsoft's new operating system will have appeared, letting you conveniently skip over the ill-fated Windows Vista.
In short, you have no immediate reason to upgrade to Windows Vista.
"All Programs" disappeared from my Windows XP Start menu!
Q: My friend has lost his "All Programs" button on his Start menu. How can we reactivate it? We tried going to oldest "System Restore" point, but that didn't work. Since he didn't have desktop icons for those programs, he's running on borrowed time. Can you help us?A: This sounds suspiciously like your friend accidentally switched to XP's "Classic" view, which makes Windows XP look like some older versions of Windows. Switching to Classic view has a side effect of dropping "All Programs" from the Start menu.
To switch back to the "normal" view, right-click the Start menu and choose Properties. When the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties page appears, shown below, choose Start menu (rather than Classic menu) and click OK.
That should solve the problem.
Gagging Microsoft Narrator in Windows Vista
Q: I've had a laptop for some while now, and I would like to know how to get rid of Microsoft Narrator. She is driving my wife and me around the twist! Thanks for any help you can suggest.A: The Windows Vista's Narrator reads everything displayed on your screen, letting you work without having to see the monitor. While she's undoubtedly a boon to the blind, she's difficult to turn off once she's started speaking: She begins reading the screen whenever you stumble onto the Control Panel's Ease of Access Center.
If your computer's stuck in Narrator mode, here's how to turn it off:
- Click the Start button and choose Control Panel.
- Choose Ease of Access
- Click Ease of Access Center
- Choose Explore all Settings
- Choose "Use the computer without a display."
- Finally, uncheck the checkbox by "Turn on Narrator" and click Save.
Shrinking Vista's Desktop icons to fit small laptop screens
Q: I recently purchased a Dell XPS420 with Vista. How do I get the desktop icons to a small size? Dell told me the current size is the smallest I can have with my graphics card. But my old laptop that runs with Windows XP is four years old and has a much cheaper graphics card, yet I can shrink its icons to a nice small size. What gives?A: Vista's desktop icons are larger than those in Windows XP, and sometimes they hog too much real estate. Vista offers several ways to shrink them to a manageable size, however.
- While displaying the desktop, click one desktop icon. Then, while holding down the Ctrl key, move the wheel on your mouse. The icons will shrink as you turn the wheel one way; they'll enlarge as you spin it the other.
- No wheel on your mouse? Then try changing back to XP's "Classic icons" by right-clicking the Desktop, choosing View, and choosing Classic icons.
- If neither of those options satisfy you, switch to a higher screen resolution, by right-clicking the Desktop, choosing Personalize, choosing Display Settings, and sliding the Resolution bar to the right. Click Apply to try see if the resolution works for you.