In PC hell with Kakworm
I appear to have picked up Kakworm, or a variant of it, this all despite having PC-cillin virus-scan on my PC and updating it every week. It would seem that the virus is responsible for some of my outgoing emails being mysteriously blocked and/or "firewalled due to presence of Kakworm virus" - whatever that means, and also for weird error messages that keep on appearing at boot phase like "driver memory error", "Windows cannot access kak.registry" and "Kagou-Anti-Kro$oft says not today!". So, help please! I'm desperate to get rid of this virus and get on with my life, and I have no idea what to do next. David Kidman
dave@kidman.fsnet.co.uk
Jack Schofield: The appropriately named PC Hell website has a good explanation of how to remove the virus at www.pchell.com/internet/kakworm.shtml. If you scroll down the site, it provides a program to do the job for you.
The manual removal involves finding a file called Autoexec.bat (it's in C:\) and deleting it, then renaming AE.KAK back to Autoexec.bat (the virus renamed it). You must also find and delete the KAK.HTA file in your StartUp directory and any other files with the same extension (use Start|Find|Files or Folders and search for *.HTA).
The virus also makes changes to the Windows Registry. Note that the virus, written in JavaScript, works when you view an HTML message in Outlook or Outlook Express, so you need to find and delete the original message to avoid reinfection.
More floppies, vicar?
I work from home (as a vicar) and I have lots of floppies with different stuff on them. Please, is there any way of printing the list of files that I have on each floppy. Even my children can't do this! Martin Leigh
m.leigh@btinternet.com
JS: The simple answer is to open a Dos session (Start|Programs|MS-DOS Prompt) and switch to the drive you want to catalogue (A:). Then type dir /o /a>sermons.txt and press Enter. This will create an alphabetical list of files and save it as a text file (ie sermons.txt). You can then print it out and/or load it into a spreadsheet to add comments, sort and store it.
However, there are dozens of much better ways to catalogue disks, and many of them are free. For example, NoNags offers numerous free alternatives at www.nonags.com/nonags/disku32.html. Both MeowCAT 1.2 (330KB) and Disk Catalog 2.0 (350KB) look as though they will do what you need.
Alternatively, why not buy a secondhand hard drive? Prices start at about £5.
More closure, please
My Windows 98 PC keeps giving me a message during the shutdown process. After using Wordpad, Wordstar and Paint, I often get a box headed "Ebrr" that says "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down".
Peter Stead
steadies@talk21.com
JS: "Fast shutdown" is enabled by default in Microsoft Windows 98 and perhaps your problem will be cured by disabling it. To do this, go to Start| Programs|Accessories| System tools and select System Information. On the Tools menu, click System Configuration Utility. On the General tab, click Advanced. Then click on the Disable Fast Shutdown box to select it. Finally, click OK twice, and restart your computer as prompted.
If you are using Windows 98 Second Edition (you don't say), this has known shut-down problems. There is a trouble-shooting guide and a bug-fix to download on the Microsoft Web site at www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUFeatured/Win98SE.
Yahoo! You've got mail
I changed my internet account to NTL and do receive their email in the Inbox of Outlook Express. I also have an email address with Yahoo, but I cannot see the email on this address in the Inbox. How does one manage to do that? I have read and tried various ways without much luck.
Suresh Dhingra
sureshdhingra@yahoo.co.uk
JS: You can get Yahoo mail in Outlook Express, but first you have to change the settings at Yahoo. Log on to your Yahoo mailbox, click the Options link and choose POP Access & Forwarding (the bottom of the middle column) to set up a POP3 mailbox. Do this and log off.
Next run Outlook Express and choose Tools|Accounts. On the resulting tabbed dialogue box choose Add|Mail and go through the Internet Connection Wizard. When you come to the page called Email Server Names, enter the following:
Incoming Mail (POP3) Server: pop.mail.yahoo.com
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
You should now be able to pick up Yahoo mail.
You can use the same Wizard to set up a Hotmail account with Outlook Express 5, but you don't need to change Hotmail.
Music to your Mini-Disc
What kind of equipment would I need to download files from Napster to my portable Mini-Disc recorder?
Jon Sutton
jonsut@bps.org.uk
JS: I haven't done this myself but I'm told it's easy ;-)
Most MiniDisc recorders have a digital optical input port so ideally you need a PC or Mac with an optical digital output port, such as the MIDIman Delta DiO or a SoundBlaster Live card with an optional Digital Optical daughter card. You'll also need a TOSlink cable to connect the two devices.
Set the MiniDisc player to sync record and use Soritong or a similar MP3 player to play your 74 minute playlist. (Alternatively, you should be able to make recordings by connecting the line out on your sound card with a line in port on the MiniDisc recorder, if fitted, though you'll have to set the record level.)
Why Soritong? It lets you put gaps between tracks.
Xitel, an American company, is about to launch an MD-Port DG1 add-on that connects a PC's USB port to a MiniDisc player or other digital device, see www.xitel.com/f_DG1.htm which may make it even easier.
· Send your questions and comments to Jack.Schofield@theguardian.com. Published letters will be edited for brevity. Jack Schofield regrets he may not be able to answer questions personally
