Currently I am using a 7 year old computer which has been upgraded several times. Soon I would like to purchase a new computer. What advice could you give about types of systems? The computer would be used as a gaming and work machine and I would also like the ability to burn CDs and DVDs. (more…)

My computer came with PC-Cillin 2002 preinstalled. When I am using Outlook Express every few minutes a PC-cillin box appears on the screen saying ‘POP3 scan’. The message disappears after a few seconds. Presumably this is scanning for viruses but means that whatever I am typing while the message is on screen is lost. Can I prevent the box appearing without affecting the operation of the virus scan? (more…)

I am bombarded with unsolicited pop-up advertisements. This happens several times an hour when I am surfing the internet. Changing my privacy and security setting to higher settings seem to stop most of them, but I can’t access some of the internet banking sites that use a pop-up window. How do I turn off the advertising but still allow access to legitimate websites which need pop-up windows? (more…)

Over the years I have frequently changed computers. With most change-overs I carry forward quite a few files from the old machine. The result is that I now have thousands of files and many different copies of the same one! Is there an easy way to go through all the files to weed out all the multiple copies? Secondly, with all the woes of the internet (e.g., viruses) I am wondering why we can’t have a simple system to list the name of each and every file sent out and received during an online session? Surely it would help the overall internet ’system’ if individuals could accurately monitor all of the traffic to and from their computer. What do you think? (more…)

Occasionally when attempting to open some emails the following message appears: ‘There was an error opening this message. There is not enough memory’. If I click on the message several times it will occasionally open. However, if I click off and on again the error message appears again. All the affected emails are via the same ISP. The computer is a Gateway Pentium III with 256 MB memory and Outlook Express. (more…)