Welcome to the Rocky Report Newsletter with common sense computer and internet solutions!

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

More information:
InsaneWare Keyfinder is a stand-alone executable, which means it does not need an installer program to run. Once you've downloaded Keyfinder, you can run it by double-clicking the program. To find your lost Windows key by clicking the Windows key button on the navigation panel to the left. To find your lost Office key, click Office key. With InsaneWare Keyfinder, you can also copy, save, or print your retrieved product code. Copy the code to your clipboard in order to paste it in a database or text file. Save your Windows
product code to a file in order to keep it for your records or send it as an email to a friend. You can also print your lost Windows key in order to keep if safely filed away. Not intended as a hacking program.  I bought it, downloaded it, and it works beautifully! I highly recommend it!

<Email question that may interest you>

Lucy wrote: "I have red x's in my emails and unable
to get the pictures. What's going on?"

Possible problems and solutions for Outlook Express:

Have you noticed that there is a bar right above the email, that says: "Some pictures have been blocked to protect...click here to download images" It's a new built in security feature for Outlook Express because Trojans that are going around in images. If you know the source of the  email, though, you should be just fine. Of course, you need antivirus software to detect viruses, up to date and subscription current.

Also you could have a problem with pictures because someone has sent you an email with pictures that they have hit the reply button, instead of the forward button, and the pictures do not transfer with the email.  One other scenario, you could have your email settings set to "read all email as plain text". You can check this: click on tools, options, read tab, and uncheck the box that shows: read all messages in plain text, click apply, and OK. Or trouble sending pictures: click tools, options, send tab, make sure that the mail sending format is "HTML", click on the HTML settings, and be sure that the checkmark is by "send pictures with messages".

<7 Weekly Tasks>

I have been telling my clients to do these 7 tasks on a weekly basis to improve their computer's performance and stability. If you'll do these tasks weekly, you'll have more control over viruses, spyware, hard drive errors, and fragmented files, and YOU WILL HAVE A BETTER COMPUTER! Now I'm sharing that with all of you! Hope this helps you.

1. Disk Cleanup: Click on the icon (check Drive C:), and then click OK, check any boxes in the list that have a number other than 0, and click Ok to delete files. ( You can find this program icon in the programs menu: start, programs, accessories, system tools, and then disk cleanup, right click on this, send to, desktop create shortcut)

2. Ad-Aware: click on the icon, Click scan for updates, click connect, then click Start, and then next (smart system scan), and scan begins, when it's finished you'll see a red flashing bug. Then click next, and you right click in the area that shows the spyware, click select all objects. Click delete, and it will quarantine these spyware objects, and delete. To permanently delete, click on quarantined list, and click on the list, and highlight it, and then click remove. If you don't have this program, you can download it here:
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10319876.html?tag=lst-0-2

Another great program for detecting Spyware is in the Yahoo toolbar.  It's also free, and either one is great:

http://toolbar.yahoo.com/?.cpdl=kwo

3. Scandisk- Click on the Scandisk Icon, and run Standard weekly, and run Thorough, monthly. Concern yourself with bytes in bad sectors, and check the top of box for "errors found and fixed", and if they are corrected. (You can find this program icon in the programs menu: start, programs, accessories, system tools, and then scandisk, right click on this, send to, desktop create shortcut.)
For XP users: Click on the My computer icon, right click on C:,
properties, tools, under error checking, click check now. Click in both boxes that come up after that click yes in the next message that comes up, and when you restart your computer the scandisk process will begin.

4. Defrag: Click on the Defrag Icon, click defragment, and run Defrag weekly. (You can find this program icon in the programs menu: start, programs, accessories, system tools, and then disk defragmenter, right click on this, send to, desktop create shortcut.)

5. Be sure your Antivirus software is working and updating, click on the antivirus icon to check the subscription dates, live update and auto protection. (especially for Norton users)

6. Check on Windows updates, and install updates if there are some critical updates to install. XP users: set your windows updates to happen automatically by clicking on start, control panel, (switch to classic view), click on automatic updates, and click on "Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them", then click apply and OK; you can set it to automatically download and install" if you leave your computer on 24/7 and you have a high speed internet connection that is always on.

7. Set a Restore point, click on the icon, click "set restore point", next, and then describe the time, click create, and close. Do this on a monthly basis, or right before you install a new program.

<Spam Explanation>

Here's how spam gets going...Software generates a million names:
rockyh_98@yahoo.com; rockyha@yahoo.com; rockyham@yahoo.com;
rockyhams@yahoo.com; rockyhand@yahoo.com; rockyhapeta@yahoo.com

I bet you get the idea how software gets to your name eventually. You can get a spam blocker program, but be sure you get one that saves your spam in a separate folder that you can view before it gets deleted. The spam software just goes by keywords and blocked email addresses, and it can rate some of your personal email as spam.

<Spam blocking programs>

There are some programs out that will help to control spam.
Go to www.download.com and type in spam blocker to see what is available. The one thing you do want is a spam folder not the situation where the program just deletes whatever email it deems as spam. You want to be able to view it quickly to determine if all that the program thinks is spam isn't some personal email. These programs are only going by key words, and some by email addresses that you have blocked. Be careful with these programs, as any new programs, some can make your computer or email program become unstable. You can always remove the program in the control panel,
add/remove programs.

Another neat email program that works with a spam blocker is
Incredimail, www.incredimail.com , it puts any email that comes from someone other than the people in your address book in a spam folder. Has a very good tutorial to use the spam blocker and ways to add the emails that get in the folder by mistake. Pretty neat trick. Go for the free version, it's in there.

<Block Sender in Outlook Express>

It's in Outlook Express if you have the newer versions.
It's been a part of Outlook Express since 5.5. You can
click on Tools, message rules and block senders list and
create criteria for blocking messages, or you can block
someone immediately by clicking on the email you wish
to block, then click on Message, block sender. That's it.
It will send that person's email from then on into the
deleted items folder. The message rules will sort by
words that you set up in subject area, or in the address
area.

Even though it's getting harder to keep your computer, and email in good shape, it's still worth it. I do hope that something does change on the spam front, because it is getting annoying. Many Internet Providers are taking an active role in this for you, and that's a good thing!

I hope these tips have been interesting to you all.  I appreciate all of you. Remember that I will have all these monthly issues of my newsletter available at my websites, along with other information:

http://www.rockyreport.com

And

http://www.internetguideandmore.com

Thanks for reading!

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