For links to every topic in this issue, scroll down to the Index

Is Vista meeting expectations? New research from InformationWeek reveals what 600 business-technology professionals have to say about Vista's security enhancements, compatibility, costs, adoption challenges, and performance. A $199 value, available for FREE, courtesy of bMighty.com. www.bMighty.com

Affordable backup for Windows Servers Need to backup Windows Servers, Exchange Server, SQL-Server? Try Backup for Workgroups. It's easy to install, use and maintain. This client/server solution is designed to backup servers to disk-based media. Download the 30-day trial software now. www.Backup-for-Workgroups.com

How long will a new PC run at top speed? The more you use your new computer, the slower it will get. Run the Free PC Pitstop PC Optimize scan now and in just minutes receive a custom report showing you how to keep your PC running like new. Scan now! www.pcpitstop.com

See your ad here

By Brian Livingston The New Year is a good time to check your preferences and make sure you continue to receive the Windows Secrets Newsletter. It will only take a minute — just follow the easy steps shown below.

1. Check your preferences page

Your preferences page allows you to select the version of the newsletter you receive, specify your locale (which we used to send Fred Langa on free Housecalls a few months ago), and more.

Use this link to set your preferences

Make sure your delivery e-mail address is correct, and that you enter an alternate address, which we use only to notify you when some problem is blocking your primary address.

2. Update your address book and 'safe senders'

Put our "From" address into your e-mail program's address book and any "safe senders" list it may use. We always contact you using the address shown in the following image:



Placing this in your address book and "safe senders" list is the best way we've found to ensure that our newsletters get to you with the least interference from mail filters.

3. Whitelist our Internet Protocol addresses

Ask your company's e-mail administrator to accept or "whitelist" the IP addresses of our publishing server, our Web server, and our in-house mail server:

    72.9.103.50 and 72.9.103.51
    216.182.80.209
    64.81.169.38

These IP addresses are controlled by our e-mail service provider, Action Message, and WindowsSecrets.com, neither of which tolerate spammers. Your mail admin can be confident that whitelisting our IP addresses will get you only good mail.

If you don't have an e-mail manager to talk to, don't worry about this step. But if you do, this is another way to ensure you'll get the e-mail messages you want.

4. Make a contribution to get the paid version

We're working hard to bring you the secrets of Windows and help you keep your PC safe from hackers. This costs money, but we don't charge a fixed fee for anyone to get the better, paid version of our findings. We want as many people as possible to have this knowledge, so we accept any financial contribution of any amount, whatever it's worth to you.

Use this link for more information

Use the above link today. With one easy contribution — by credit card, PayPal, or a check or money order via postal mail — you'll immediately receive our latest paid newsletter, and you'll get access to all of our best information for the next 12 months.

Today's 'news update' has breaking patch info

We're sending out this short "news update" today so that all of our subscribers can read Susan Bradley's extra column on important patches that were just released for Internet Explorer, Apple QuickTime, and other programs.

Susan's coverage of problems with major Windows patches usually appears twice a month in the paid version of our newsletter. Our news updates, however, are the same for both our free and our paying subscribers. There's no paid section today, so everyone can read Susan's latest report.

Next regular issue: Jan. 3, 2008

As you know, we don't normally publish during the last two weeks of December. You'll see the next regular issue of the Windows Secrets Newsletter on the first Thursday of next month: Jan. 3, 2008.

Until then, use our contact page to send us your Windows tips, and thanks for your support!

Contents  Index

Backup your data with ZipBackup Finally, a backup program that's easy to use. ZipBackup's Wizard makes backups a snap for beginners. Filtering, scheduling, and disk spanning make it a powerful tool for experts. For a limited time, Windows Secrets readers receive 25% off. www.zipbackup.com

Get your product seen by 275,000 readers Does your company offer a product or service? Now you can place an ad in the Windows Secrets Newsletter and be seen by more than 275,000 active buyers of PC hardware and software. Bid as much or as little as you like to get the ideal ad placement. www.WindowsSecrets.com

See your ad here

By Susan Bradley In this special, news-update edition of Patch Watch, I provide help for those of you who are afflicted by crashing in Internet Explorer 6. Some other things to watch out for are the new service packs for Office 2003 and Office 2007, which are bringing trouble with them this holiday season.

Internet Explorer 6 issues corrected in patch

For those who use Internet Explorer 6 on XP SP2 machines, you may have found that merely visiting the home page of MSN.com caused your browser to crash. Dr. Jesper Johansson, who was recently named a security MVP by Microsoft, showcased the crash on his blog on Dec. 19 and provided an early workaround. Microsoft subsequently released its official version of the workaround on Dec. 20 in the form of a patch that's downloadable via Automatic Updates.

If you've experienced this crash, visit Windows Update or download the patch from Knowledge Base article 946627 to fix this issue. Once you install this update to Microsoft's recent IE cumulative rollup, you should no longer see this problem.

Install problems plague Office 2007 SP1

On Patch Tuesday this month, Dec. 11, the arrival of Service Pack 1 for Office 2007 was confusing to many people. I haven't yet found any Patch Watch readers whose machines automatically installed SP1. But many people inadvertently installed it and thought it had been auto-installed, because Vista offers SP1 as an optional patch and it's prechecked, so it's easy to miss the fact that you're approving SP1's installation.

Some people who have the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or Home/Student versions of Office 2007 are finding that they get a cryptic 78F error when they try to install SP1. It appears that the cure for this requires that you uninstall Office and then reinstall it.

As one newsgroup poster pointed out in a forum post, that works only when you have an install disc. If you don't, you'll need to contact the OEM manufacturer for a replacement.

Office 2003 SP3 hurts Access, old file formats

If you've decided to spend time installing all the latest service packs this holiday season, Office 2003 SP3 is something you should consider — as long as you don't have an Access 2003 database. Access developers are still recommending that you hold back before installing SP3 for Office 2003.

For the rest of you, if you've already installed SP3 and you find you can't open older versions of files in Word and Excel, a documented Registry edit can allow you to use those files once again.

Microsoft's Knowledge Base article 938810, which describes this workaround, is a bit tricky. For this reason, I built a file that makes the necessary Registry changes for you. It's posted on a blog page from which you can download a .zip file that contains officefix.reg. Right-click this file, then click Merge to make the changes to your Registry.

Recent Apple patch causes Safari crash issues

Apple apparently didn't want Microsoft to have all the crashing-browser fun after applying security patches. The Cupertino company joined in the merriment as soon as people installed Apple's recent 2007-009 patch. After installing that update, browsing to a certain type of Web site that requires you to log in causes Safari to hang, as shown in Figure 1.


Figure 1. A recent Apple patch causes the Safari browser to crash with a cryptic error message.

To fix this issue, Apple users can run the company's Software Update Service and manually scan for the updated patch, which is known as 2007-009 1.1. This will install right over the earlier 2007-009 patch.

You can read more about security update 2007-009 via Apple document 307179. The fixed 1.1 version of 2007-009, which was posted on Dec. 21, can be obtained from Apple's download page.

QuickTime finally gets security patch

I've warned you about an unpatched security issue in QuickTime in several of my most recent columns. Apple finally released a fix on Dec. 13 with version 7.3.1 of QuickTime.

For those who use Apple's automatic software-updating service, you may have been notified to update QuickTime and install iTunes at the same time. If you just want to install the fixed version of QuickTime and nothing else, visit Apple's Web site to get the QuickTime 7.3.1 fix alone.

Alun Jones, another security MVP, doesn't like software that installs unwanted programs from the same company. So he wrote a blog post on Dec. 17 about trying to remove unwanted iTunes, iPod, and Apple Mobile Device Support software that was installed along with QuickTime. If you're in Alun's situation and want to remove some of the additional junk, his post provides two links that can assist people who are using Windows XP and Vista.

Help people find this article on the Web (explain):
Digg	Delicious	Reddit	StumbleUpon	Other	Permalink

Please tell us your rating of the above article:
Poor	Fair	Good	Great	Superb

Contents  Index

Contents  Index

Contents  Index

• Use this 2-click *** link; or
  
• Send a blank e-mail to unsub@WindowsSecrets.net with leave kallyorama@gmail.com as the Subject line; or
  
• Visit our *** page.
  

Contents  Index