December 13, 2007
Have a question? Ask Fred Langa!
This week in Windows Secrets, our editor-at-large finally gets back to work. Many of you know that Fred Langa, after nine years of writing the LangaList e-mail newsletter by himself, and then merging with Windows Secrets and writing our lead story for almost a year after that, escaped to the wilderness on a five-month motorcycle journey through the width of the U.S. and back across Canada. Read more »
MagicJack promises dirt-cheap phone calls
Making phone calls over the Internet is nothing new, thanks to well-known providers like Skype and Vonage. But a simple USB device from an upstart, MagicJack, promises to bring voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to the masses for as little as $20 USD per year. Read more »
Windows Home Server is not ADS-friendly
I explained in my Dec. 6 article how Alternative Data Streams (ADS) on NTFS-formatted disks can be used to hide data on your computer. But copying such files to a shared folder on Windows Home Server can corrupt the streamed data, meaning applications on other PCs on the LAN don't recognize the file format. Read more »
Never leave home without it!
It's a classic story. Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl spend the night together. Boy has to leave in the morning for a meeting, but asks for Girl's phone number. Girl clogs Boy's toilet and ends up leaving an unexpected present along with her number. Read more »
Is your ISP in cahoots with spammers? 
Ever wonder if someone's mining your ISP's mail server for addresses? Here's one way to test for malfeasance at your mail server — and I'll show you several other ways to keep your e-mail address out of the wrong hands. Read more »
Will Vista SP1 improve your performance?
Microsoft says that Vista Service Pack 1 will improvement system performance, and many of you probably think. "It's about time!" This week, I give you a rundown of several improvements you can expect after you load Vista SP1, and a link where you can learn even more. Read more »
Office 2007 SP1 surprises Vista SP1 beta users
Many people were startled on Dec. 12 to see that Service Pack 1 for Office 2007 had been auto-installed, and their machines had been rebooted. Microsoft had said that Office 2007 SP1 would be made available on Dec. 11, but would not auto-install on that date — but the beta versions of Vista and several other Microsoft products didn't behave that way. Read more »