Tom AZ

I totally agree with this statement -- NEVER reply or respond -- just DELETE. I can sympathize with the problem. I get over 300 spam e-mails/day. To help manage this and sort things out, I installed Mailwasher Pro. . Unfortunately, it's not a freebie, but it works very well for me. Tony Klein (Moderator) put me onto this app -- and I'm so grateful for his suggestion. This stuff (spam) was overtaking me.

You are exactly correct -- they are scanned PDFs. Your suggestions are well-taken -- and pretty much what I thought from the beginning. However, right now, it sounds like a whole lot more work than I'm willing to undertake. I thought maybe (at least I was hoping ) there might be a simple one-step solution. Thanks for the help.

What has prompted you to consider this, Andavari?

Thanks, Humpty (and Hazel), I'll give that a try.

The way I have things set up on my computer is that when I download an mp3 file, it is supposed to open in my audio editing program. This setup works fine in Firefox (Un-Sandboxed) and in IE7. However, when Firefox is Sandboxed, it doesn't work. The file appears to download -- then pauses -- then I get the error message about a problem with the audio editor and wanting to send this error report to Microsoft. Any thoughts on how to make this routine work when Firefox is Sandboxed?

DirectX used to run just fine on my old Windows 98SE system. However, maybe these more recent drivers are no longer compatible.

I've appreciated all of the input on this subject. I haven't done anything yet, but I was wondering about a "DirectX" folder I currently have -- apparently from a previous install. The path is as follows: c:\ -> Program Files -> DirectX -> Setup. Nothing in the DirectX folder other than the Setup sub-folder -- and only one file in the Setup folder is "DxDiag". Can this whole DirectX folder (along with the Setup sub-folder) be deleted?

Thinking about the latest -- Aug 08.

Based on Keith's comment, has anyone tried this latest update yet?

I lost you with your "EDIT" comment. Could you please clarify.

I just downloaded the most recent DirectX update. Shortly into the install, it asks: "Where do you want to place the extracted files." I drew a blank -- don't really know . I have a "DirectX" folder (with a "Setup" sub-folder) in "My Program Files" folder. Is there where they go?

Just read the following from Andavari in the "Diskeeper Lite" Thread: The disk doesn't need to be reformatted to use NTFS, it can easily be converted inside of Windows itself using Windows itself to do it all without losing one file as detailed in the links provided in YoKenney's post.. Of course I'd make a whole system backup onto other medium first before attempting it just to play on the safe side. Obviously, I'm wondering . . . who's right?

Actually, in addition to having a lot of audio files on my external, I also store multi-gig drive image files. Right now those image files are split into about seven 4GB+ files. Are you saying that after converting to NTFS I could create a single file image? So, if I wanted to convert to NTFS, what's the procedure -- and how long does it take? Does the conversion affect any of the data already on that drive -- or doesn't it have any impact on that whatsoever?

After reading the thread on DiskKeeper Lite, I did a little checking of my own XP system and found that my C: drive file structure is NTFS, but my external USB hard drive is FAT32. Very honestly, I don't know a whole lot about this kind of stuff, so I was wondering if this the way it's supposed to be -- or, for some reason, I should consider converting my external drive to NTFS?

I'd be inclined to go with option #2 -- the external USB hard drive. I've had one for years and love it. It's a pretty simple solution to your problem -- and today, you can get a lot of storage very inexpensively. Assuming your USB is 2.0 (and not 1.1) the performance will be great -- you won't even know you're supporting an external drive. Of course, just my opinion.

I've already checked that out. It's not the viewer -- it's the pdf's themselves. Probably goes back to the source originals -- there must have been some problems at that level. Just thought they might be able to be corrected "after-the-fact."

Not sure. I wondered if something like that might work. I'll have to investigate a little further.

I haven't either -- but it's not really a monitor issue. I have some fairly large, important, multi-page black & white pdf text documents in which the text image density on a few of the pages is not consistent with the other pages. These are documents that get used -- and printed repeatedly. Therefore, I was hoping to standardize the image density from page to page by selectively adjusting those pages in question. I figured this was probably a long-shot -- but I thought I'd ask anyway.

I've been looking for a PDF editor that can adjust the Brightness and/or Contrast of an existing PDF page (in other words, the ability to make it lighter or darker). I really don't even know that this type of thing exists -- just hopeful, I guess.

How do you keep CCleaner from displaying programs in the "Application" Tab that are no longer installed on your computer? It's obviously picking up this info somewhere -- how do you get rid of it?

Pretty much assumed that it was safe to clean . . . but just wanted to check. Thanks. By the way, I've had winapp2.ini installed for quite a long time.

Is it OK to let CCleaner "clean" AVG and/or Grisoft apps?

Thanks to all for some good suggestions.

I believe PageDefrag from Sysinternals defrags the registry. You can either launch it on demand -- or automatically at startup.

I'm looking for a reliable and safe list of non-essential auto-start programs.