Q. I am a bail bondsman and my problem with Microsoft’s Web browser is that every time I attempt to access a credit history-checking site I get an error reading, “This page not available, please check your browser settings.”
I have checked everything that I can think of but still can’t get through on those sites. For instance, if I am ordering something, I can place the order, but when I go in to put in my credit card number, I get the message “This page not available.” I am on a Qwest Internet service provider account, and someone suggested that is the problem, that the line is not good enough.
–Loretta Knutson, Calendonia, Minn.
A. Don’t blame the phone lines for this one, Ms. K., because the gremlins are the security settings for your Web browser that clearly aren’t correct to accommodate that highly secure Web site where your business pays fat fees to access credit reports.
Strangely enough, these glitches can be due to settings that are either far too restrictive or far too permissive.
So here is the drill:
The way to change settings to be more permissive is to change the Security tab settings in the browser. Click on Tools and Internet Options in the browser and you will find the tab for Security in the next display. You will find a drop-down bar called Custom Level. Click it and set it to Medium-low or Low to keep the browser from rejecting sites that use fancy procedures such as ActiveX to do their stuff. That may do the trick.
Otherwise you need to change the so-called Secure Socket settings for the browser that handle things such as encryption schemes used by sensitive e-commerce sites. These settings live under the Advanced tab on the Internet Options menu. Pay particular attention to the options for SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 under Advanced. They almost certainly need to be activated.
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Q. Is there any way to retrieve e-mails from Outlook after reinstalling Outlook? I saved my old C drive after upgrading to a bigger hard drive and then reinstalled programs. I can’t find e-mails from the old C or any .pst files.
–David [email protected]
A. I felt your pain, Mr. E., after I checked your Web site and saw that you are in the business of providing voice-overs for television and movie programming, which clearly depends upon keeping in touch with producers. As you already know, Microsoft Outlook keeps all of the data for e-mail messages, address lists and calendars in files with the ending .pst. One can then direct Outlook to open any .pst file and recover its data. Let me suggest two ways to find yours, an easy way and a slightly more demanding one, if needed.
Maybe you can just use the Windows search tool and find the needed files in a snap. Click on Start then select Search and then pick Files and Folders. Next pick the old drive–probably now called D. Now type in this search term: *.pst. The software will look for all the non-hidden files with the .pst ending.
However, many crucial files such as those valuable Outlook .pst formats are designated as hidden to prevent somebody from inadvertently erasing them by doing stuff like conducting the kind of search I just described. So you can use the Windows DOS command line to find hidden files.
The DOS prompt usually is kept under the Windows Accessories menu (Start/Programs/Accessories). Once there you will see a display that probably reads C:
Windows, the directory for the operating system itself. To move up one level and prepare to search the whole C: drive, type two periods and tap Enter. Now type in D: and tap Enter to direct the search to the old C drive. The display now will read D:
.
Now to do the hidden files search, type dir /ah /s and tap Enter. The /ah means “attribute hidden,” and /s orders the search to look in all subdirectories of the old drive.
Q. When a friend with a Dell computer running Windows XP tries to run the spell-check for e-mail messages in Microsoft Outlook Express, something strange happens. Instead of checking spelling, the program calls up and runs the installation program for Microsoft Picture It Photo 2002. I found this gripe on the Microsoft Knowledge Base, but it was for Picture It Photo 2001 and Windows 2000 machines.
I tried eliminating the lines from the registry as instructed in the Knowledge Base but to no avail. Now I cannot uninstall Picture It or fix the problem.
— Arnold Caines, Lewiston, Idaho.
A. I thought you were pulling my leg about this bizarre claim until I retraced your steps and found that yes, indeed, the software wizards at Microsoft managed somehow to create a bug where the superb Picture It digital photography software has corrupted the totally unrelated Outlook Express e-mail software.
The rather stunning result is that whenever affected folks try to send an e-mail, their computers run the installation program for Picture It instead.
And so Microsoft has, indeed, posted an alarming warning for an unlucky minority of victims describing all sorts of complex fixes to registry files, ordering clean bootups and other advanced techniques for the 2001 version of the software.
Reading through it all I discovered that the exact same issues apply to version 2002 but that the required fix is so complex that even professional software engineers might get confused. No wonder you had trouble attempting a fix, Mr. C.
It’s pretty outrageous. In the end, Microsoft is telling its blighted customers that it’s their own tough luck. You can read chapter and verse of this impossible situation at www .support.microsoft.com/default .aspx cid=kb;en-us;294731.
If that’s too much typing, just go to the Microsoft Web site and use the Knowledge Base 294731 as a search term.
The whole world should read this and then set out to find Bill Gates, a vat of tar and some chicken feathers.
Meanwhile a far simpler fix would be to break out the restore discs that Dell gives its customers and reinstall all of the included software, including the Picture It software. You can reinstall the bundled software without erasing the hard drive, and once Picture It has been reinstalled, the uninstall routine will work and permit removing the program.
And then I’d urge you to consider some other way to get e-mail, such as the excellent competitor to Outlook Express built in to the competing Netscape browser at Netscape.com.
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Have a question for Jim Coates on small-business technology? Send an e-mail to askjimbiz @tribune.com or via snail mail at the baiduhai, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column.
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