Two tongues
I run Windows 98 and all my software is in English. My wife is German and wants to use the same computer to run Office 2000 in German. Can I partition my computer so I can dual boot it, one which gives all my English software and the other German?
Barry

Jack Schofield replies: You can install Windows 98 twice, in different directories, on the same drive. If possible, use different drive partitions, such as C: and D:. Set up your PC to start in MS-Dos and then you can choose which example of Windows you want to run. Windows Annoyances has instructions for creating a start-up menu to make this easier. See: www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-054

However, Windows 9x was never designed for this kind of use. In contrast, Windows NT has always used the standard Unicode system to cater for multiple languages, and has a proper Unix-like system for handling different users. It would therefore be better to upgrade to Windows XP, which is based on NT/ Windows 2000 code. However, check beforehand that all your programs and peripherals are compatible with XP. Some may need new drivers, which may not be available. Considering the cost of XP, compatibility issues and the time involved, it may be worth buying your wife her own PC with XP pre-installed.

Photos online
I want to put 200-400 photographs - which were taken by myself and a number of friends on a recent holiday - online for two or three months so everybody can share them. Do you know any websites that offer a reliable service at reasonable prices?
Andrew D Heyes

JS: You can do this free with an online photo album. PictureTrail is an obvious example, and Yahoo Photos also provides the basics. For a guide to the photo album sites online, see www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/photo/ albums.html

Drive lock
My young daughter is severely autistic but enjoys playing computer games. Unfortunately, she also likes to open the CD drive and flex the tray up and down. Is there a way to prevent this?
David Harris

JS: I don't know of a way to lock the CD using software -- perhaps a reader can help us out. However, you could fit a security lock to prevent the drive being opened. One example is sold by Insight International (tel: 01273 475500) for £25.20 including p&p and VAT. See www.insight-security.com/pf02-1.htm for details. Locks are sometimes used with public access PCs to stop CDs being stolen, or for data protection purposes.

Record it
Is there a simple way of capturing or storing streaming media such as internet radio?
Philip Plowden

JS: High Criteria's Total Recorder seems to work well for audio streams. You can read about it at TechTV and download it from www.highcriteria.com. The registration fee is $US11.95 or $17.95 Canadian.

Train it
I'd love to buy my father a train sim, but he has a Mac. The only train sims I can find are for PCs.
Joe Flatman

JS: The best non-Japanese game seems to be Microsoft Train Simulator, which was written in the UK by Kuju Entertainment. No Mac version has been announced, but your father may be able to run it using Connectix's Virtual PC for Mac, which Mac users buy so they can run Windows software. Alternative gifts include Abracadata's Train Engineer Deluxe and 3D Railroad Concept And Design and Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon II, which may be old but is still a great game. For more on train sims, see www.trainsim.org.uk.

Backchat
· Last week, David Critchley asked about receiving SMS (text) messages from people using mobile phones on his Windows 98 PC. Contrary to what I replied, there seem to be lots of ways to do this, usually by the person replying to a message you have already sent. ICQ was the most popular suggestion. Tricia Ayrton says: "If David enters the mobile phone number of the person he wishes to message, he can send an SMS message to their phone. The recipient must save the ICQ phone number on their phone in order to reply to the computer, and will then be able to send further messages to the computer." Some noted that SMS messages could take a long time to arrive.

· The Lycos portal was another popular choice. Debbie Moorhouse says: "Tell David to go to www.sms.lycos.co.uk and sign up. He'll need a valid UK mobile phone number for this. He'll get five free messages a day. However, if people send messages to your phone number in the ordinary way, they're received by your phone, not by Lycos. To receive messages on his PC, he'll have to send them that way first."

· Several people use services where you receive SMS messages by email. Helen Chandler says: "My friend with a mobile subscribes to eXcell and, by typing my email address in the message in a standardised format, can send an SMS to their network, which is then forwarded to my email address. I respond using the free texting service from Orange, which allows me to SMS any mobile over the net from my PC." Colin Leeds has tried both eXcell and while Adrian Cobley and Joia Shillingford suggest TextMessenger.

· Rob Jagger, development manager at Liquid Drop, says his company "offers a service that enables people to send and receive text messages by email. It differs from apparently similar ones (eg Genie) in that customers can use their existing email account, and do not have to pre-register the mobile numbers to which they wish to send a message. See: www.liquiddrop.com for a free, no-obligation trial".