A few months ago a folder called RECYCLER appeared on the two hard drives on the computer. Can this folder be removed from the computer? (more…)

I would like to seek your opinion relating to increasing spam on my computer. The spam issue has grown into a major problem, with almost all received email being spam. So, I have several questions which I hope you could answer. First, if I purchased a new computer how can I be sure the spam problem will not continue with the new computer? Second, would switching to Linux fix the spam problem, which Linux distribution do you recommend, and is the firewall in Linux good compared with the comparable Windows products such as ZoneAlarm? Third, if I installed Linux in a dual-boot configuration with Windows would this be a more secure setup, and is there evidence suggesting Linux is a more secure operating system and less susceptible to viruses and spyware/adware? Fourth, is it worthwhile to purchase a hardware firewall or router for my Transact broadband connection, and will this help reduce the amount of spam? Fifth, are there any other options to reduce spam, apart from changing my email address, as the current anti-spam software which I am running seems to be very ineffective? Sixth, why doesn’t my antivirus software stop spam? Finally, my computer is running very slowly at the moment, so is there a way to track-down the cause of this slowness and speed up the computer performance? Thanks for taking the time to answer my long list of questions! (more…)

The Firefox web browser (www.mozilla.com/firefox) is a highly configurable program, with the most well-known settings located in the ‘Tools’ menu > ‘Options’. However, there is a wealth of hidden configuration items. In the address bar within Firefox, type ‘about:config’ (without the quotes) and the advanced settings screen will appear. This is a text-based configuration and most of the settings have quite technical names and values, which are not particularly intuitive. For a more comprehensive description of the settings and their purposes, visit: kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries. (more…)

Recently I attempted to download a program called Emoticons, which enables humorous graphics to be added into email messages. The download was taking a long time so I aborted the process. The installer advised that an icon had been placed on the desktop allowing the installation to be completed at a later time. I selected the icon and pressed ‘delete’ to remove the icon from the desktop. However, now every time I start the computer a message appears stating the system configuration is being checked. The dial-up connection window also appears without any further input from me. When I close the dial-up connection window another message appears informing me to try again later and establish an internet connection. The icon reappears on the screen, and I have to delete the icon again. How can I stop this from happening every time the computer is started? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

In Windows Explorer there is a drive letter which is not linked to any physical drive (at least I think it is not…). When I double-click on the drive a message appears saying ‘M: is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect’. Also, the M: drive does not appear in the Disk Manager console. The properties of the drive are ‘File system unknown, Capacity 0, Used 0, Free 0′. How can I get rid of this non-existent drive? (more…)