Q. I have created Web browser bookmarks on different computers and I would like to combine them into a single bookmark list. Can this be done?
Chet Cergy @snet.com
A. You are not alone in wanting to keep track of bookmarks spread out among computers at work and ones at home, Mr. C.
It’s not exactly the smoothest thing you can do, but I can suggest one fix that will merge favorites lists in the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser on one machine with those on a second computer. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth the effort. I’ll also suggest an alternative workaround.
Bookmarks are kept in a folder called Favorites that is designated with a star icon instead of the regular yellow folder symbol. This Favorites master folder holds files for each Web page and subfolders with various categories corresponding to the outlined list that comes up when you open the Favorites item in the browser menu.
It is possible to make a copy of all of the material in this Favorites folder on one computer and then copy the whole kit and caboodle on top of the Favorites on a second machine. When you do this, Windows will overwrite Web pages with the same name but it will simply add any pages with different names to the mix. This gives you the merged list you are seeking, but there is some lifting required.
First, you need a floppy disk, a thumb drive or some other way of moving files between computers. So fire up whatever removable storage gear you want on the first machine and then right-click on Start and then select Explore from the pop-up menu. Scroll down the list in the Windows Explorer display to that Favorites star icon and open it. Now tap Control + A to select all of the folders and files in the Favorites folder and then tap Control + C to copy them.
Now open the icon for your thumb drive or other storage and tap Control + V to paste the folder’s contents.
Next, move the storage drive to the second machine and reverse the process to paste the contents into the Favorites folder there. You will be warned that any files with the same name will be overwritten but that all new material will be added to the folders.
Next you need to copy all the files in the second folder and take them back for pasting in the first. At this point both machines will have identical favorites, and in the future you can synchronize them in this fashion.
This is a lot of bother, so let me suggest an easier approach that gives results almost as good as all this file moving. You can use the Export/Import tool in the browser to create files with the name bookmark.htm that hold all of the hotlinks on any given machine.
So click on File and then pick Import and Export in the drop-down list that appears. Pick Export favorites and follow the prompts to create a file holding a list of the favorites. By default this file is called bookmarks.htm but it can be renamed if desired.
Now take the exported file to the next machine and use the Import side of the tool to bring the list into that browser. This leaves you with an addition to the favorites list that offers the bookmarks on the other machine. It’s not an exact copy as one gets with the first technique, but it does give access to all of the same material on both machines.
Q. I just purchased a Dell computer with Windows XP. My old computer had Windows 98. Is there any way to copy the old computer’s address book into the new Windows XP machine?
Bill Cavanaugh @peoplepc.com
A. Happily the address book in Microsoft Windows is written into the Windows Web browser and Outlook Express e-mail module that are part of Windows. So you needn’t worry about whether Windows XP is compatible with Windows 98.
This means that making the switch is quite simple.
Open Outlook Express in the old computer and then click on the Address Book icon at the top of the display. Now click on File and look for the Export item. Pick it and the drop-down menu that appears lets you save the address book as a Windows Address Book (WAB) format. Save the WAB file onto a floppy disk, and all you need to do is move the floppy to the new machine and repeat the steps, except picking Import this time. The browse button that comes up will let you open the floppy disk and select the WAB file and import it.
Q. I am trying to make an “emergency start-up disk” for my PC. The book says to use an old-fashioned floppy disk, but I only have old ones on hand and don’t want to buy more as I won’t use them.
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Can I use a CD for this? How would I go about this?
John Begi @wmconnect.com
A. I hope this is good news, Mr. B., but the day of the emergency start-up disk is fast drawing to a close because of changes brought about by Microsoft and computermakers with the arrival of Windows XP.
Computermakers now build into the hardware a version of the Safe Mode that kicks in when the user presses the F8 key during startup. Just as emergency floppies bypass loading Windows, so does the F8 command if you pick that as an option when a text menu appears.
This gives the user the kinds of repair options that earlier had been offered by floppy disks with special formats that let the disk boot up the machine without loading Windows and without using the hard drive.
When the F8 boot up kicks in, the user gets choices to start the computer from the old-fashioned DOS display using text commands. Or one can make choices to start up without any drivers being loaded or with networking enabled and so on. The most useful of these F8 commands is one that attempts to start the computer using the last working configuration.
Many Windows XP machines don’t have floppy drives nowadays because of this strategy.
All that said, however, it still is possible to use Windows XP to format a floppy to start up in MS-DOS. However this just brings the computer up with the same text input command line as the F8 sequence offers along with other options.
Even then I recommend that you just bite the bullet and buy a small pack of floppies if you decide to make a startup disk. While it sometimes is possible to work around things and get your computer to boot from a CD, it’s more bother than it is probably worth.
Software for burning discs like Roxio Easy Media Creator offers the option of creating a CD that emulates the MS-DOS startup disks, but this software costs far more than a couple of floppies.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or via snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/askjim.