Tom asked:

“when I had the free Avast service I would get a voice telling me that quote avast antivirus is updated”. But now that I have purchased version of Avast I no longer get that message. Should I run the disk that was sent to me when I made the purchase”?

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Hello Tom,

The setting for this should be the same in the purchased version as it is in the free version. Follow these steps:

1. Right click on the little blue ball in the system tray down near the clock.
2. Click on program settings in the menu that pops up.
3. On the left side of the window, click on Sounds.
4. Make sure that the checkbox next to “disable Avast sounds” is unchecked.
5. Now click the okay button.

That should turn the sound back on for you and let you know when updates have been installed.

I hope that helps,

Mike

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This e-mail comes to me through my website from Lois.

Her e-mail was quite long-sought edited it to save some space.

Here is a little information about the machine I’m using.  It’s a custom made desktop is running Vista.  I have had it about two years.  I get my Internet connection through EarthLink, and I run their e-mail through Microsoft Outlook.  I have recently started having problems, and I’m not sure if it’s with EarthLink, Outlook, or both.  For the past several months, I have received several phishing e-mails from PayPal.  I forwarded to spoof@PayPal.com and then delete it however, over the last two weeks or so, I have received several of the same phishing e-mails I have been unable to forward.  I can pull up the forwarding e-mail and address, but I cannot send it.  After I close out of the forwarding e-mail and the phishing e-mail, I find that I am not able to open any e-mail.  If I close Outlook completely, I find that I am unable to reopen the unless I restart the computer.

Thank you in advance.

Hello Lois, thank you for asking your question.

You did the right thing by forwarding the phishing scam e-mails to spoof@PayPal.com.

However, not knowing which version of Microsoft Outlook you are using or how you have it set up I can only think of two solutions that may help you.

The first solution is to make sure that you have run the battery of utilities that I have in the downloads section of my website.

First go to the downloads page of my website, once there select the first item, which is the Savemybutt Utilities Instructions, and save it to your hard drive for future use. Download the programs that are listed in the instructions and follow them step by step.

If by chance you have gotten some form of malicious bug on your computer that is causing this problem with Outlook, these procedures may fix it.

If that doesn’t work, the only thing I can think of to do would be to write down all of your connection settings for EarthLink and then reinstall Outlook. Depending on the version of Outlook that you have, you may get the opportunity to repair it during the installation process.  If not, he may actually need to reinstall the whole program.  Make sure you have all of the updates and see what happens.

And, don’t forget to back up your address book and your e-mail file.  If you do a search of your hard drive for a file that looks like this *.wab, that’s your address book, and a file that looks like this *.pst, that your e-mails and contacts.

If you have to install Outlook from scratch, when you open the new installation for the first time you will have to point Outlook two location where these files are at.

I hope that helps.

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Frank from McHenry Writes:

I finally, after listening to you on WGN, went to Save My Butt, and found out what it’s all about. I was trying to find a free version “ad-aware”.I had version 6 and was going upgrade and ended up deleting it. Maybe it’s for the better because be find a free version.

Looking over your list of a possible replacement What do you suggest as a replacement. My computers (1 desk top & 1 laptop) running XP all up to date. using anti virus is Avast, and Zone Alarm (not Laptop using Microsoft  firewall) as my fire wall. I’m really tired of Zone Alarm popping up asking if I want to allow something.

I have been told that the firewall program that comes with vista is available, for free, for XP. Don’t what to look for, do you know the name of it?

I am a Volunteer, with 4 other teachers, to seniors over 55 at the McHenry Township Senior Center.I teach beginners, other teachers teach Word, Excel, Photography, Family tree, Greeting cards, E-mail and the Internet. We have 6 computers all with XP and loaded with programs. I’m always asked by grand  ma or grand pa, what is the anti virus, do I need a fire wall, etc.  My oldest Student was 91, knows E-Mail,  now wants to learn the basics. Sometimes it fun and sometimes it’s damn hard work for a 79 year old teacher.

Sorry to be so long winded. Really enjoy and admire you knowledge of the science of computers.

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