Address a need
Is it possible to save addresses to a floppy disk? I would like to pass along part of my Outlook Express 6 address book, that I use, among other things, for a Morris dancing site. Trevor Adams

JS: Sharing an address book is easy. Search your hard drive for *.wab to find the Windows Address Book file and you can copy that to a floppy. Give it a new name (eg dancers.wab), and copy it to the new PC. Finally, open the address book on that machine and do a File|Import|Address Book (WAB).

Passing on part of an address book is tricky. What I would do is create a group (select New then New Group) and give it a name such as Dancers. Click on Select Members, highlight your Morris contacts one or more at a time, and click on Select to copy them to the group. Click OK when done. Now select the Dancers group in Windows Address Book's left-hand pane, click on the right-hand pane, and select all the names (Ctrl-A).

Hold down the right mouse button and drag all the names to an empty directory in Windows Explorer, let go and select Copy Here from the pop-up menu. This will create a number of small vCards (virtual business cards), one for each person. Copy all these files to a floppy disk and then to a temporary directory on the new computer.

Open the address book on the new machine and load the vCards by dragging and dropping the whole lot into the right-hand pane. (The recipient could create a new, empty group to hold them.) vCards are a cross-platform industry standard and this trick should work with any modern address book software. If it doesn't, you can always load the addresses into a vCard-compatible address book by double-clicking each vcf file.

I think that keeping a floppy full of vCards is a good way to keep a back-up of your address book. However, there is a possible glitch, which comes up in Mac OS X and possibly other places. If you drag multiple addresses out of the Mac Address Book, you get a single card with multiple entries. Some address books cannot read multiple cards.

Manual updates
I have just upgraded my computer, which involved re-installing Windows 98SE. I now need to download the updates from Microsoft, but find they are at least 13MB. As I have a dial-up connection, this will take forever. David Prestage

JS: You have spotted a flaw in the Windows Update system: it generally works well if you use it often, but cumulative updates can take a long time. Microsoft often collects updates into bundles called service packs, so the quickest option is often to download the latest service pack on its own, then return for minor updates later. Microsoft also provides updates separately, for companies that want to download the update once then apply it to dozens of PCs. You can use this facility to download updates one at a time, in a few minutes each. You can also keep copies of these updates so you don't have to download them again if you reformat and reinstall Windows. Go to www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads

Corporate users and readers who prefer this approach can search for updates at http://corporate.windowsupdate.microsoft.com or http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Due to the extreme cleverness of the Windows Update system (which is synonymous with "extreme stupidity") you may need to resort to the troubleshooter at http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/troubleshoot

Batteries to go
Your reply on iPod batteries reminded me that I have a defunct lithium-ion battery from my laptop. Have you any suggestions as to where I might take it for proper disposal? Michael Farringdon

JS: It is a good question but, sorry to say, I do not have a good answer. This page at least explains the options: www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources

Backchat

Jerry Wilson queried my statement that "the most common DRM is the one used in Microsoft's proprietary WMA (Windows Media Audio) audio file format." Jerry has overlooked the non-download uses, including the tens of millions - perhaps hundreds of millions - of Windows XP users who are inadvertently creating licensed files from their own CDs. This means that every track that is copied to their PC is a licensed file that cannot be played on any other PC unless they backup and restore their licenses on the other computer. I strongly advise Windows Media Player users to turn this feature off. Fortunately it is easy to do. Go to Tools, select Options, and click the CD Audio tab. Untick the box marked Enable Personal Rights Management.