If you are considering upgrading to Windows Vista, the different product editions (Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate) can be a bit confusing. Before upgrading, make sure you decide which edition is most suitable for you. You can find a full description of the different editions, and their features, at: www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx . (more…)

When I right-click on a photo in the My Pictures folder and select ‘Send To’ > ‘Mail Recipient’ a window appears asking me to select a profile. I have tried selecting the default Outlook Express profile and a particular email address, but I have no luck in getting the photo to send by email. I tried this procedure on another computer, and as soon as I click ‘Mail Recipient’ the photo is automatically attached to an email and ready to send. A second issue is when I try to view a photo email attachment in Outlook Express a message appears saying the computer is unable to view the photo (which is in JPEG format). If I save the photo to My Pictures I am able to view the photo. Why can’t this happen directly through Outlook Express? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

Whenever I attempt to send or forward an email in Outlook Express the following message appears: ‘Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of inactivity. Account: , Server: , Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0×800CCC0F’. The incoming and outgoing email servers are correct, as specified in the ISPs setup documentation. I have also increased the server timeout to 5 minutes, but the problem still remains. There are no problems receiving emails. The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

Windows XP Service Pack 2 includes a feature called Security Centre, which provides monitoring of system security. As such, the Security Centre will notify you should the Firewall, Automatic Updates and/or Virus Protection be disabled on the computer. But, if you have intentionally disabled one of these features, the Security Centre alerts can become annoying (for example, if you have disabled Automatic Updates because you prefer to manually update Windows). However, these alerts can be disabled. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ‘regedit’ (without the quotes) and click OK. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftSecurity Center. In the right-hand pane you will see the following DWORD values: AntiVirusDisableNotify, FirewallDisableNotify, and UpdatesDisableNotify. To disable the alerts for any of these features, right-click on the relevant entry and select ‘Modify’. To disable the alert, set the Value Data to 1. To enable the alert, set the Value Data to 0. You will need to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. (more…)

Is it possible to prevent Outlook Express from downloading messages exceeding a certain size? I noticed this feature is available in Outlook, but I have not been able to find a similar feature in Outlook Express. Also, can you tell me whether updates for Internet Explorer are included in Windows Automatic Updates? (more…)