Question Time

The Age

Tuesday October 24, 2006

GEORGE SKARBEK

Q I have pop-up advertisements jumping onto my screen and I don't know how to get rid of them. My pop-up blocker settings are at the highest level. At the moment I have am using Windows XP pro and have NOD32 as virus protection. Also I run adware but nothing seems to help. I use Internet Explorer and have Google as my home page search engine.

T. Egan

A. Anti-virus software alone will not block pop-up ads as these do not have the virus signatures and other measures are required. There are many sites that offer free pop-up blockers including Google and Microsoft. As well as this, Microsoft has Internet Explorer v7 (beta) available from its website, which has improved pop-up blocking. This upgrade is available from the Microsoft site under Downloads but you must have SR-2 installed.

For the others see: http://toolbar.google.com/popup-help.html for the Google blocker. To ensure that you have your current version of IE configured correctly see: www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/web/sp2-popupblocker.mspx and for one of the many free pop-up blockers see: www.panicware.com/product-psfree.html

Q I have loaded the old Q&A program and can get to the DOS prompt (command prompt according to Windows XP). I cannot get the Q&A window to open up bigger than about a quarter of the available screen space. Any suggestions?

J. Welsh

A You have two options. One is to right-click on the top border of the DOS box and select Properties, then from the Font tab select a larger font or window size. The other option is to press Alt + Enter to toggle to full-screen display.

Q I have been looking for a free software tool to perform undelete/recovery of deleted files. In my searches some tools have appeared as free but require a licence fee to activate or to be able to utilise all features. I have downloaded several tools - some will do a scan and show files for probable recovery (but won't let you actually perform the recovery), others will only do recovery of some file types on certain media. My issue is that I would like a tool that allows recovery of deleted files from disks and memory cards (e.g., USB flash drives, camera's memory cards etc). Is there any program that you know of and would recommend? Or is the best avenue to buy a recovery tool such as Nortons?

T. Cater

A I am not aware of any free programs that can do what you want. Many programs claim to be able to recover deleted files but I have tested only a few of them. I suggest that you consider O&O UnErase, that works on the hard disk and USB and cameras. This is one of the programs that has always worked for me and for a couple of my clients. See: www.oo-software.com/en/products/oounerase/index.html for details.

You can download a trial version

of this program, and it will show the files that can be recovered but will

not actually recover them. This

allows you to find out if your file can be recovered without having to

spend money. If your file is found you can buy the unlock code, which will be emailed to you within a few minutes, and then you can make the program active and ready to recover files.

George Skarbek's latest book based on these columns is available from:

www.skarbek.com.au.

george@skarbek.com.au

© 2006 The Age

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