Number 262 - March 2005

UPDATE
Beginner Articles    Usually, but not always, we start the newsletter with a Beginner's section carrying articles aimed at those members who are just beginning their adventures with computing. These articles are also aimed at those of us who have simply forgotten some of the basics which we once knew and held dear. For those times when we don't carry a Beginner article in the current issue you can always go to the Internet to look for them. For example, go to our own website www.toggle.org and read Beginner articles in back issues of the TOGGLE newsletter from June 1999 forward. Or you can also just browse the Internet at large for beginner articles. Your editor entered the words Beginner computer articles into Google's entry box: The following responses were found on the first screen page displayed:    http://www.computertimes.com/training.htm    http://www.stevegrossman.com/scgBeginner.htm    http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/computerbeginnershandbook    which led to:    http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/internet101    Next time you need a Beginner "fix" try these sites and explore the Internet. There's lots of help out there just for the asking. There is also, of course, help right here at in the User Group Help Line but if that isn't available try the past newsletters as suggested.	Reg Cleaner 4.3 JV Problem    The February 2005 CD of the month included several Directory editing and cleansing programs among them Reg Cleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio and distinguished here from the other Registry Cleaners by adding JV to the program name. During the presentation of Registry Cleaner 4.3 JV, Libraian Tom Stepanek admonished users to "Do Registry Cleanup ONLY!" Apparently that warning was missed by at least one TOG member who purchased the disk and then proceeded to do other operations with the Registry Cleaner 4.3 JV program which wiped out his directory--effectively crippling the Windows operating system. Since the directory cleaning operations keep the erased data in a file which can be restored if done so before it is destroyed, Libraian Tom had also admonished us to reboot after each individual cleansing operation to ensure that your computer still operated properly and, if it did not, to UNDO the last operation--putting things back where they were. Unfortunately our hapless colleague had not done that and lost his directory so was unable to reboot.    Tom worked with him to recover his directory but it was a long and painful process. If you use Registry Cleaner 4.3 JV, use it to "Do Registry Cleanup ONLY!". With this and any other directory cleaner program, unless or until you are very familiar with what it does, don't activate more then one feature at a time--or, possibly don't use it at all. Remember to reboot after each pass and undo changes if your machine does no act normally . Microsoft's RegCleaner which was also included on the CD seems to do basically the same thing more safely--although you may have to activate it through two or three passes to get everything.
Number 262 - March 2005