| By Lincoln Spector |
| Published in the July 2008 print edition of PC World Philippines |
| July 17, 2008 |
Over the past 25 years, readers have asked PC World thousands of questions about technology. Some —like “Why won’t DOS recognize my dot-matrix printer?”—have lost a bit of their urgency. But even as the standards and specs change, the central questions of the tech savvy remain remarkably consistent: How do I get my devices to work together, how can I work more safely, and why is Windows so damned annoying?
How we come up with the answers, though, is changing. In the past, responses appeared in the form of personal messages from editors or in my column, Answer Line. But the Web lets us invite you into the conversation. We’ve put all 25 of these questions, with my answers, into PC World.com’s community wiki. I’ve already received some great feedback from our community members. Want to join the discussion? Head to http://forums.pcworld.com. You’ll find documents dedicated to each question.
Is There a Downside to Using Free Security Programs?
Yes, but not so problematic a downside as to make free security programs unacceptable. You lose the convenience of a one-program-does-all security suite. And companies that don’t charge you seldom offer great tech support. (Then again, neither do some companies that do charge you. In fact, some of the biggest hassles readers report about security programs involve billing snafus.) Also, the last time PC World looked at spyware fighters (to see the full report, visit find.pcworld. com/59713), the free programs performed relatively poorly.
Yet if you know what you’re doing, a software combination like Comodo’s fire-wall (find.pcworld.com/59714), AVG’s free antivirus (find.pcworld.com/59715), and Spyware Blaster (find.pcworld.com/ 59716) will probably keep you safe.
Not all free security programs can be trusted. Some are scams and amount to malware themselves. So don’t use one unless you’ve heard good things about it from a reliable source.
For just such a source, consult Preston Gralla’s “15 Great, Free Security Programs” (find.pcworld.com/59717).
How Can I Make Vista’s UAC Less Annoying?
Many Vista users hate User Account Control, the security system that pops up a warning every time they try to do something as serious as installing software or as innocuous as changing the system’s clock. Luckily, a free program called TweakUAC can turn UAC off for Administrator accounts but leave it on for everyone else. Just run the program (which you can download from find.pcworld.com/59829), select Switch UAC to the quiet mode, and click OK.
But this expedient has its risks. Vista deems this setting a problem and so notifies you. Sure, you can turn off the warnings or learn to ignore them—but either way, you risk missing other, more important warnings.
Another option: If you use Vista Pro or Ultra, you can fine-tune your system’s UAC settings. Select Start, type secpol.msc, and press <Enter>. Navigate the left pane to Local Security Settings• Local Policies•Security Options, and scroll to the bottom of the right-hand pane for several User Account Control options. Experiment with them until you find something to your liking.
Why Can’t My XP PC See My Vista PC on the Network?
Microsoft designed Vista’s networking to be both secure and simple. So much for what they intended. Some networking headaches are specific to Vista, and others existed before Vista and continue to exist. To eliminate problems of the latter type, read, “What to Do When Network PCs Don’t See Eye to Eye” (find.pcworld. com/59718).
If that article doesn’t solve your PC’s problem, the issue may hinge on how you share the computer’s folders. Vista’s default setting lets you share folders only with yourself.
Right-click a folder you want to share, and select Share. If Vista responds with the message “This folder is already shared,” click Change sharing permissions.
In the resulting File Sharing dialog box, type everyone into the unnamed field next to the Add button, and press <Enter>. The word “Everyone” will appear in the list of people with whom you can share the folder. On the right side of the dialog box, select the permission level you want to assign to people sharing the data. Click Share to close the dialog box (which may take some time to process your request).
Is TV Burn-In a Real Problem?
Yes, it is—especially for plasma and CRT sets. A static image that remains on screen too long can burn into the screen’s phosphors and remain there, possibly permanently. And if a portion of the screen goes unused for extended periods of time—for instance, if you watch a lot of TV programs in “normal” (that is, 4:3 aspect ratio) mode—the outline of the black bars that your set uses to frame the image could become a permanent part of your television.
If you have a plasma TV, you may want to restrict the amount of time you spend watching stations with permanent logos or ticker tapes, or watching in 4-by-3 mode— or you may want to switch from black bars to the TV’s gray bar option. This is especially true during the first few months you own the set; the older a TV gets, the less likely it is to suffer from burn-in. If you like older TV shows or movies made before the mid1950s, and you prefer to watch programs as they were meant to be seen, you should probably not buy a plasma set. For more information on handling aspect ratios and avoiding burn-in, read Becky Waring’s article, “How to Get the Most Out of Your HDTV” (find.pcworld.com/59830).
LCDs aren’t as susceptible to retaining images as plasmas are, but it can happen. I know of one instance where a new LCD television was permanently damaged by very heavy 4-by-3 viewing (about 6 hours a day). Of course, since they lack phosphors, LCD screens can’t suffer from true burn-in. Call it “image retention” instead, but for all practical purposes it’s the same thing.
With any of these technologies, lowering the set’s brightness and contrast improves your odds of avoiding damage.
As far as I know, DLP sets don’t suffer from image retention problems.
Can Failing to Drain Batteries Completely Before Recharging Them Still Cause Problems?
No. Only nickel cadmium batteries exhibited the notorious “memory effect.” In fact, today’s lithium ion batteries have the opposite problem: Draining the battery can shorten its life. So avoid letting the charge drop below 10 percent.
Heat affects lithium ion batteries, too. A laptop battery will last longer if you remove it before running the notebook for lengthy periods on AC power.
But anything you do merely delays the inevitable. These batteries start wearing out on the factory floor, and eventually they’ll go bad even if they never see an electric current. Remember that before you buy a spare battery as protection against the day your current one dies.
