Readers share their knowledge, experience
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): Remember three weeks ago I told you some of the questions that readers of this column had asked me and I had not been able to answer? I was truly flattered when the number of responses I received far exceeded my expectations. I even received an e-mail from a reader in the U.S. and another from Yogyakarta. I thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experience and hope this can help others solve their problems.
I also deeply regret that, due to my hectic schedule over the past few weeks, I was unable to even forward them to the people who had the problems. Some of them may have found the solution, others may be patiently waiting for theirs. Anyway, here is what they told us:
Sticky Outlook
First, regarding Microsoft Outlook that takes ages to load, two readers, Mr. Hantoro and Mr. Indramin, suggested that the problem might be caused by a data file that had grown so big that Outlook simply had to work hard to read it. Outlook, as Indramin said, stores all the contents of Inbox, Trash, Sent items and other folders in one single .PST file.
If you have this problem in Outlook, what you need to do is archive all those thousands of e-mail messages. Or, as Mr. Bungsuputra Linan from Yogyakarta suggested, you should first backup every single folder in your Outlook in a separate subdirectory (also called folder in Windows 9x), then reboot the system. Before you run Outlook again, try to find the file named OUTLOOK.PST and move it to a different folder on your hard disk. The idea is to force Outlook to create a new one, which is what will happen when you run this program.
Mr. Linan said it solved his problem of sticky Outlook. He did import all of the old messages folder by folder, using the Import facility in Outlook. I do not use Outlook, so I cannot verify this will work, but it does make sense.
For those of us who still use Outlook Express (OE), it's bad luck, however, as there is no such command available to archive our messages. Besides, the problem may lie somewhere else. I do have a huge collection of e-mail messages (I receive at least 60 every day), and my Inbox alone contains more than 5,000 messages. This means that I would need a whole week to delete the ones that I no longer need, and that free week is nowhere in sight.
I did one small experiment to check whether it was really the stored messages that got out of control that has caused the problem of my sticky OE. Similar to what Mr. Linan did, I specified another location for OE to store messages (Tools, Options, Maintenance, Store Folder and then Change). This should have given me a clean OE with no stored message whatsoever. Unfortunately, it still took a lot of time to load.
Do not attempt this experiment, though, if you have a lot of message rules to filter incoming messages and route each of them to appropriate folders, as you would have to fix each one of the rules. Besides, you would run the risk of losing all your old e- mail messages, some of which may still be needed.
Windows Me
Mr. Sanjaya Sugiarto sent a detailed e-mail with a lot of important recommendations. Addressing Mr. Srinivasan's problem with his Windows Me, which refused to shut down properly, he suggested that we should install Windows Me from a clean slate (we should not upgrade existing Windows). Keep in mind, too, that Me requires 128 MB of RAM and a processor clock speed of 300 MHz. There may be problems with conflicting programs, he reminded, and the best thing to do is to check which programs are running in the background before you shut down. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del just once to get the list of active programs.
The same was suggested by Mr. Linan, who said that, in cases like this, we should try to isolate the program that might be preventing Windows from closing down elegantly. Try to close one more program running in the background using Ctrl-Alt-Del just before you shut down, and see what happens.
Mr. Sugiarto also emphasized the need to scan and defragment our hard disk regularly. The best way to do it, according to him, is to run Windows in its Safe Mode. To enter this mode, reset the PC and hold down Ctrl as Windows starts. When you see a menu, choose Safe Mode. Then run Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter that you can find under Accessories (Start, Programs, Accessories and System Tools).
Gauge your connection
As to Ellen's question, why her sister always receives truncated messages from her brother who uses a PC at a Cybercafe in Bali, a reader, Paul, wrote from the U.S. that the culprit may have been the format in which the messages are sent. Not all dedicated e-mail devices can handle HTML files -- HTML being the standard for formatting text, graphics and photos on a Web page. Mr. Bungsuputra Linan also suggested the same.
Most of us configured our Outlook Express to display messages based on the format they arrived in. So, if the sender sends a message in plain text, OE will display it in OE. If it comes in HTML format, OE will display it in HTML with all the layout and formatting intact, and there will be no problem.
However, when sending a message to devices such as PocketMail and the PDAs, it would be a good idea to select the Plain Text format (in the New Mail dialog box, click on Format and then Plain Text). This will increase the probability the message will be received properly.
Now, here is a nifty free utility that is recommended by Bill Machrome, the contributing editor of PC Magazine. Called NetPerSec, it is like a speedometer for your Web connection. It will tell you the speed of your connection in bits per second -- both downstream (from the ISP to your computer) and upstream (from your computer to the ISP). You can download this free utility from Ziff-Davis' site, www.zdnet.com/downloads/. If you are still using Windows 95, however, you may need to install Winsock 2.0 and Dial-up Connection upgrades, both of which are available at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads.
I found this utility quite useful when a Web page that I was trying to open seemed to freeze. By double clicking on the NetPerSec icon inside the System Tray, I opened its main window and saw the activities of the connection. If I did not see any activity, that would indicate that my Internet Explorer was not receiving any data and may be frozen. (zatni@cbn.net.id)