Search XP

I have bought a new computer running Windows XP, and the system's search facility seems very inferior to Windows 98. Is there a solution?
Colin Barker

Jack Schofield replies: Microsoft has made XP's search "easier to use": they've dumbed it down and put a useless animation on top. Most or all of the old functionality is hidden underneath. Go to Search and select Change preferences, at the bottom of the left-hand pane. When you get How do you want to use Search Companion?, click Change files and folders search behavior. Choose the Advanced option and click OK, then the down-arrows for More advanced options. Now you can choose to search subfolders, system folders, and hidden files and folders. You must now do a search to make the options stick. If you liked Windows 98, you will also want to change the preferences to "Without an animated screen character" and make XP hide the Search Companion pane. For faster searches, you could also consider turning on the Indexing Service: see http://masl.to/?A5E2215B5 for details.

Microsoft's changes annoyed at least one person into writing a $10 replacement, Find Files XP, which you can download from www.find filesxp.com. There are other alternative search programs such as Find Express (www.armenm.com/FE.html), Cool Find (www.nihuo.com/coolfind.html), Ava Find (www.think-less-do-more.com/avafind), EF Find (www.efsoftware.com/fn/e.htm ), and Effective File Search (www.sowsoft.com/search.htm). If you have a serious need to file and find things, then the most comprehensive option I know is Enfish (www.enfish.com/Products_individual.asp) but it is expensive.

Hiding addresses

Since a number of viruses rely on sending themselves to everyone in your address book, what are the prospects for storing your Windows Address Book file on a removable medium such as a floppy disk?
Mike Elliston

JS: If your mail software can find addresses on a floppy, then so can a virus - and anyway, I can't see how to do it with Outlook Express. The correct answer would be for the mail client to encrypt its address book. The obvious examples for Windows are Calypso (www.rosecitysoftware.com/calypso) and its updated cousin, Courier (www.rosecitysoftware.com/Courier/); perhaps readers will let us know if there are others. However, recent viruses are capable of searching for addresses in text files, letters and web pages on your hard drive, so they will work even if you do encrypt the address book.

Incidentally, the most common suggestion is to add special entries to the address book, starting with !0000. This idea doesn't work, and is covered in Vmyths' list of common email hoaxes ( http://vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=263&page=3).

Java stop

I downloaded the Opera web browser, and the site advises you to download the Java option. I opened up the Java Web Start folder and found it contained four items, two of which appeared to be games, but it crashes my machine. What is the purpose of Java Web Start? Do I need it?
Stephen Gibbins

JS: You don't need Java Web Start to run Opera 7 and if you don't need Java for other purposes, you don't need to take the large (12.5MB) Opera download instead of the small (3.1MB) Java-free one. Java Web Start was Sun's attempt to recover from Java's failure to make progress on the web. It lets you start a Java application by clicking a link on a web page. JWS is bundled with Mac OS X in the hope that sites will offer Java applets that run on Macs and Windows, and it does have security advantages. However, Windows users might regard it as pointless bloatware.

Proxyconn

In the US, Proxyconn is advertising near-broadband connection speeds for a fraction of the price. Would it work as well here, and why don't we hear more about it?
Martin Blinkhorn

JS: Proxyconn software filters out pop-ups and adverts, compresses data, and uses a proxy server on your local hard drive as a cache. It cannot and does not change your connection speed. See masl.to/?U58B11865 for a review. Proxyconn should provide an increase in surfing speed, but nothing like broadband. If you like the idea, you could always try using The Proxomitron, which does some of the same things. However, instead of costing $9 a month, it's free. (www.spamblocked.com/proxomitron)

Backchat

· Steven Randell wanted to know why Apple would not let him upload files from his iPod to his PC running Windows XP. Paul Dixon says: "you can do this using EphPod (www.ephpod.com). It's far superior to the bundled iPod software, too." The website says EphPod also "imports Microsoft Outlook contacts," among other things.