Airborne

My apologies for raising a rather knotty and contemporary matter. I never intended to create a rambling diatribe between "them" and "us", although it was probably to be expected from the prophets of doom. I must just clarify the enthusiasm expressed by the optimistic statement "Starbuck summed it up nicely...." Well, did he ? I don`t think he summed up anything at all. 1."Not all malware comes through your browser." We all know that - so what`s news ? 2."Eventually software vendors will also stop updates for their XP programs...... this will then start to place vulnerabilities on the system." The word "eventually" is indeterminate and means nothing. The rest of the comment is relative to an unknown period of time. Weeks, Months, Years ? Who knows ? 3."It may take awhile, but Win XP will be forced to die." Again an indeterminate statement. Everything in life takes "a while", which is the same as "how long is a piece of string" The entire statement is a thoroughly logical, commendable and positive expression of the indeterminate and sums up nothing at all except the probability of an indefinite situation.

@ Synapse Many users in the world still use Windpws 95, 98 and ME with no problems and they are yonks unsupported by MS. Windows XP will still be highly popular 10 years from now. And ME ? I have already made it clear about my situation. Many users only know how to use the Internet for online shopping, my comments are for those who know a little more about how the system works and how to prevent threats and intrusions once MS updates for Windows XP have galloped into the sunset. I have absolutely no fears about April 2014 and am getting a little bored with the matter. And so endeth the lesson. AMEN

Hello Starbuck. Nothing is perfect in this world of ours, even MS Windows XP updates. I have simply given you a solution that is as close as you can get, take it or leave it. You are of course stating the words of caution, but with half the world committed to XP for a long time to come, what have I said that is not practically true for the home user ? Are we all supposed to commit ritual PC suicide just because MS stop sending us those irrelevant and annoying updates ? Of course not. Whilst the Western MS fan club dance around in Win 7 and 8 ecstasy at the prospect of the best OS that ever lived being killed off, ordinary users and the rest of the world will simply continue. I respect your comments of course Starbuck, but they are highly pessimistic, uneconomic and impractical. You poke at Sandboxie not being perfect, but Sandboxie + a good AV and FW will as I have already said will not miss those XP updates one jot. In fact I personally will be glad to see the back of them. All my OP is intended to do is show the reader and users of XP that life can and will go on after April 2014 and with care, nobody will notice any difference. I am honored to be one of the 40% plus world XP users and am confident that my XP operations will outlast the creaking joints of my old computer. Our PC will not turn into a Pumpkin or us into a frog at mid-night on that fateful day in April 2014. I sincerely wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy XP New Year. Airborne

When Microsoft pulls the plug on supporting Windows XP in April 2014 with over 40% of businesses and 40%+ of the non-Western world heavily committed to XP and resistant to change, Sandboxie for the ordinary home user will be the saving grace. China for example has Windows XP as their top browser and the rest of the world come in at around 40% - see http://www.neowin.net/news/statcounter-windows-xp-is-the-most-used-os-in-eight-countries-including-china Much of Western industry and commerce will be reluctant to upgrade to Win 7 or 8 due to the excessive financial investment and disruption involved and will have to rely on their main security systems. The other two thirds of the world do not have the money to throw away on the luxury of upgrading and will continue for many years to come with XP. I use Sandboxie all the time to open my browser. Being a virtual environment, I do not need any more of MS`s incessant Windows security updates, they are simply cosmetic. Although technically an AV is not necessary with Sandboxie, I do have AVG 2014 and a good Firewall to protect against outgoing threats. All bugs and other nasties in the sandbox are automatically exterminated on browser closure. So as for April 2014 and MS`s withdrawal of support ? Who cares, I certainly don`t and expect to be using my XP trouble free for many years to come. All due to Sandboxie and the unique genius and generosity of Tzuk the designer and owner. XP will not be the deciding factor for me to upgrade to Win 7, it will be when my computer dies of old age, with my grateful thanks to Tzuk and his wonderful Sandboxie.

I have used for over 10 years now MSGTAG free edition on my workhorse OE Email account with not a single problem and I have almost always received a message saying that the recipient has opened my mail from a large variety of highly official and business sources to friends. With my Gmail account I have just discovered Bananatag for Google Chrome as a simple extension http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Internet-Applications-Addons/Chrome-Extensions/Bananatag-for-Gmail-Chrome-Extension.shtml With a few simple adjustments to the settings, it works perfectly with no trouble whatsoever. Every new Email has the Bananatag marker and tracker checkbox included and a receipt message is received immediately the recipient opens the sent mail. Brilliant, it is extremely user friendly and the support people can be contacted easily and are prompt in replying. With the free version, 5 Emails per day only are allowed, but for myself and many more casual Email senders, that is more than adequate.

OH COME ON LUV, TURN THE TELLY UP, YER MA`s TOO BUSY WATCHING CORRIE. http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/johnbull17/OldLadyinchair_zps3916e9a0.gif

TURN THE TELLY UP A BIT MORE LUV, I CAN`T FIND ME HEARING TRUMPET. http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/johnbull17/BIGEARS.jpg

I am so old that I don`t have birthdays anymore, can`t count above 100, there ain't enough beads on the frame.

Howdy JB, Well it mat be all very interesting talking about the payout costs for these media people, but I have another problem related to our ransoms. With an advert of 4 minutes 5 times each hour, that is 20 minutes of program gone which WE paid for. We do not pay for adverts, the ad people pay the media people fortunes to show their rubbish off and completely destroy out programs. With a 5 minute advert, I often forget what I am watching and certainly lose track. THEN with 100 so-called channels on my menu, it seems fabulous eh ? Well half of them are crap radio channels that are simply dead wood. Another 20% are kids channels, leaving a pittance for me to chose from. THEN out of this residue, almost every program going on for days, weeks and months is a repeat which I have seen. Some programs on view now are over 2-3 years old, even longer for films. AND many films are over 50 years old, the stars are all now dead. We even get Charlie Chaplin films of the 20`s and 30`s. You may think that the News at least is current. No way, most of that is yesterdays news and the Weather Forecast is mostly wrong. Granny`s Arthritis pains are a better indication of the weather. So what are we left with JB ? Not a lot, but the dog loves it all, especially the Chum adverts. Cat adverts are a threat to our TV set being sent flying by a Rottie in full flight.

Who did you switch from and who to ?

Nev,that was a brilliant technical explanation, thanks a lot. I am now thoroughly pixilated and discomknockerated with ecstasy at knowing how my TV storage goes through the floor on HD. Airborne

Scene - The Little Bighorn, June 1876 - General Custer and the 7th in complete disarray and staring at 5,000 whooping and yelling Indians, coming charging at them. Custer turned to his 2nd in command and said "Ya know Captain, ah just cannot understand it. They were all singing and dancing last night".

Nev, Thanks for that explanation, my rusty technical cogs have absorbed it all perfectly and I fully understand. But for you I could have been consigned to mental stagnation for all eternity. Actually our standard picture is so clear and sharp that I find it difficult to distinguish between HD and standard. But again thanks for unlocking my mental blockage. Airborne

I have recently gone onto HD with Virgin Media Cable TV and almost had a heart attack. My video storage of what I thought was 80 hours, plummeted through the floor. Although I knew I only had about 45 hours of stored programs, the indicator showed only 6 hours free and then went critical. Well, after a look at the Internet, I discovered to my amazement that recording HD programs takes around 4 times the storage capacity than recording Standard programs. So I suggest you WATCH HD programs but RECORD Standard programs in order to save storage capacity. Here it is :- Virgin Media - Standard storage = 80 hours. HD storage = 20 hours. Sky TV - Standard storage = 185 hours. HD storage = 60 hours. Why this 4 to 1 difference between Standard and HD storage is a technical mystery which I dare not investigate for fear of having an intelligence melt-down..

Instead of double clicking every item, Windows makes it easy to convert to a single click. Just :- Control Panel>Folder Options>General>Click items as follows>Select single click>Apply>OK

I find Windows XP Home a perfect, time proven and reliable system. unfortunately MS will withdraw support in 2014 and I will have to update. I will probably go for Windows 7. By then, this version should have had all the bugs sorted out. I still would prefer my XP. As most of the Third World use Windows XP and the cost of change is a hardship, I do not know what they will do.

If you do not have a massive Email activity and plenty of disk space, there is no need to compact the files. Surfing the web on compacting, gives me the wobbles. Many users have had problems with compacting with lost files, folders and messages. Me ? No thanks, I play it safe and leave compacting in the minds of enthusiastic MS protagonists. When you reach 100 OE open and closures a pop-up will come on screen saying "To free up disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take up to a few minutes. OK? Cancel" From then on, every time you open OE the message to compact will pop up. Excruciatingly annoying. But never fear, you can get rid of this curse so that it only pops up every 100 open and closures. To reset it manually: 1. Close Outlook Express and all message windows. 2. Click Start> Run and type without quotes "regedit". 3. Navigate to this key ;- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0 where GUID is the long number used for your Identity. 4. In the right-hand pane, double-click "Compact Check Count", then change the value to zero. I chose the "decimal" value option when resetting the value in the "compact check count" dialog box, as it is a normal digital value. 5. Close Registry Editor. All done. Having set the Compact Check Count to zero, the pop-up panel will not occur again until it reaches 100, then you simply repeat the procedure and reset it to zero.

I would suggest that the taskbar is unlocked, just right click the taskbar clock and uncheck the "Lock the Taskbar"." If you place the cursor on the top taskbar line, you can customise the taskbar for depth and width by dragging when the vertical or horizontal arrows appear. To get any desktop program onto the Quick Launch/Taskbar is easy, simply left click on the program icon, hold down the mouse key and drag the icon to the taskbar, release the mouse key. All done. The initial icon does not move and remains in place. To delete an icon from the taskbar, right click, select "Delete" on the pop-up panel and it is gone. For a program not on the desktop, right click the icon>Send to>desktop>Create icon. An icon then appears on the desktop and you proceed as above. Then just delete the temporary desktop icon. When finished, lock the taskbar by rechecking the "Lock the Taskbar" as described above.

I have had the Google Toolbar on my Firefox since version 3. At about version 4, Google and Firefox seemed to have a squabble and Google withdrew their toolbar by making it incompatible with Firefox. Big laugh to me, I just got round their embargo and still have my Google Toolbar on Firefox current version 22. For users like me who had the Google Toolbar before FF version 4, here is what to do :- Start>Run>%appdata%>OK>Mozilla>Firefox>rmwshom9.default>extensions>{3112ca9c-de6d-4884-a869-9855de68056c}>install.rdf>bar along to <em:maxVersion>XX.0.*</em:maxVersion>about half way along on top line and change the "XX" to your version number - mine is currently set at 24.0>close. You can enter what value you like, 30.0 would be fine. A simpler way is to install Firefox add-on "https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/checkcompatibility/ Disable Add-on Compatibility Checks This add-on disables the Firefox compatibility check which tags the Google Toolbar as being incompatible and allows it to be installed and/or updated. It is said that with this add-on installed, the Google Toolbar can be downloaded and installed on Firefox. Always make sure that current updates are actioned. There are other fiddles available if you surf the web on this subject, but I regard the two described as being the most popular.

OK, you surf the web on how best to clean your keyboard and are met with a barrage of ways and means. This is what I did the other day :- I first disconnected the power supply, then turned the keyboard upside down, shook it and lightly thumped the underside to get all the debris out. Then I used Methylated Spirits. I cleaned the flat surfaces with a lightly soaked cloth, which did not take very long and afterwards used an old toothbrush to clean all the keys, sides and slots etc. I dipped the toothbrush in the Meths, pressed the bristles against the inside of the bottle to get the surplus off and finally just tapped the brush on a cloth. Then brushed away merrily. No splashes or dripping onto the internal circuit board. A final wipe over with a cloth and it was done. The result was very pleasing, I can now see all the key symbols clearly and it never took very long at all.

Well, the Forum Index said to share your tips with others, so here goes yet another beauty I admire. Click & Clean is a smart little extension that is superb in controlling your bits and pieces like no other can. I use it all the time for manually deleting my cache, checking and authorising cookies, looking at my browsing history and a few more magical actions. See :- http://www.hotcleaner.com/clickclean_chrome.html I always close my browser using C&C, it does it securely and automatically deletes your personal selection of junk. I set it to clear the cache, browsing history, download history and cookies. There are many other items you can select to delete on closure. Cookies can be sorted into a Cookies to Keep and Delete list, so you do not delete cookies that are necessary for your favourite sites or Google account. Google gets real upset if you delete its cookies and throws an uncontrollable tantrum. C&C has never given a speck of trouble, only benefits.

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/johnbull17/ROLLINSMILEY_zps0595da82.gif Windows has a self destruct program ? It don`t need one - I am more than capable.

I have just been made aware that Windows has a built-in calculator, a fact I have been living with for over 10 years, not knowing my XP had one. Anyhow I found it by - Start>All Programs>Accessories>Calculator. It pops up on the screen with a single click and can be moved by - Right click>Move>Drag. To get the Windows calculator onto the taskbar :- Start>All Programs>Accessories>Calculator>Send to>Desktop(create shortcut). Once the shortcut is on the desktop, just right click/hold and drag it to the taskbar. It stays there. Then delete the desktop shortcut.

Hello JB, You must mean "per month". What exactly does your figure include ? I am with Virgin Media, the "L" package up to 20 Mb and pay £28.65 inc. £4.77 VAT. It is unlimited. I pay a line rental of £14.99, but that includes the telephone - not included in above figures.

If you need a headache, this is the ideal prescription for it. I have been with British Gas, EDF, Southern Electric and some I have forgotten. My conclusion is that it is a spaghetti junction of misinformation and lots of nice figures that never seem to blossom into practical economic gains. Somehow, the mathematics of net gains take a dramatic reversal into an inverse function of net loss. The mind boggles. Only a budding Einstein protege can come anywhere near understanding the bunkum they throw at you before you sign up. The different Tariff`s and layered unit charges defy resolution by the most advanced computer. So we take it all in, sign up and find our bills are still as high or higher than before. I am currently on a dual energy deal with Sainsbury's Energy (British Gas incognito) with their Nectar points and promise to meet the lowest price in the top 6 suppliers - HUH ! We'll see. Question ? Who is your energy supplier and how satisfied are you with your annual combined fuel bill ? http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab327/johnbull17/LAFFINMOUSE.gif