Monday, October 1, 2001		Article

Back up Outlook address book
Vipul Verma

HAVE you ever come across a situation where you lost all your data, links and other information? Computers are always prone to crash. However, if you take little care and precaution then you can protect yourself from the hazards of losing your data. The best way to ensure that you don’t lose your data is to take regular backups. However in most cases the users take back up of all necessary files, but do not take backup of other critical information like address book, links, bookmarks etc.

Like your files, the address book is also equally precious and the user should take its backup before it’s too late. If you use Microsoft’s Outlook Express then you can adopt the following procedure to take a back up of the Outlook Express address book. First open Windows Explorer and go down to the Windows directory. Click on this directory and then click on sub directory Application Data>Microsoft\ Address Book. Under this sub directory you will find many files. Choose the one with a .WAB extension as this file represents your address book entries. Take a backup of all these files either on a floppy drive, CD ROM or even on another partition of the hard disk.

Normally, taking a backup on a separate medium is preferred as with the problems in your hard disk, you may sometimes lose the data on other partitions also. You can use the backup on other computers and can thus share your address book on many computers. Moreover, you can also carry this file along and install it on the computer your working on.

While reading the above tip you must have noticed that in order to reach the correct file, you have to navigate through the Windows Explorer extensively. For novice, this could sometimes be a problem as they may not be very comfortable with searching files and folders present on the computer. Even for professionals navigating through Windows Explorer could be a tough job. However with the help of simple tip, controlling Windows Explorer could be fun. First of all if you want to open, the Explorer window then all you need to do is press the Window key and while holding it down press the key "E". This open Windows Explorer on your computer screen. But this way Windows Explorer is opened as a whole. What if you have to open a particular drive or maybe a folder? In this case, open Windows Explorer and then select the driver or folder, which you would like to explore and then hold down the shift key and press the Starkey located on the number pad on the right side of the keyboard.

This will automatically open all folder, directories, sub directories etc. and will thus enable you to view them simply by scrolling down without bothering to open any directory or sub directory.

This tip can be applied to any folder, having many sub folders in it, as all you would need to do is simply highlight it in the left pane of the Explorer window. While holding down the shift key, press the multiplication key. Similarly if you want to explore all contents in the computer, simply highlight My Computer and follow the same procedure again. This will open all directories, sub directories, folders and sub folders in your computer. However if you wish Explorer to open a drive other than your C: drive, or even a particular folder by default on opening the Windows explorer window, then all you would need to do is open Windows Explorer and select the Windows folder. Now click the + sign and locate Start Menu. Click on it and on the right hand window select the Explorer.exe shortcut. Then right click on it and select Properties.

In the Shortcut tab you will see an entry reading C:\ WINDOWS\ EXPLORER.EXE /n, /e,C:\ . This is the description of Windows Explorer default setting. Before you make any change here, you should write down this entry somewhere. Now, if you wish to open the D:\ drive by default when the Windows Explorer is opened, then delete the C in the above entry and type D in its place. Similarly, if you want to open a particular folder, for example My Documents or any folder, which you use most often, then following the correct drive specifications type My Documents immediately after the drive letter without any spaces. If you wish to open My document folder then it should be followed immediately after the C:\ Mydocuments. However, you must also note that there are spaces before the /n, and /e, and that there is a comma after the n and the e. If you wish to restore the previous setting then simply write back the entry, which you have written in the first step. Thus with a help of this tip, you can add a lot of value to the Windows Explorer.

If you’re looking for convenience and speed, then the first thing that comes to your mind is Internet browsing. Normally, people have a general complaint of slow Net browsing. Well! This could be due to several factors, like bandwidth of your ISP, telephone line condition, RAM available in your computer, status of your telephone exchange etc. But other than these factors, which are beyond your control, there are several other things that can be taken into consideration to improve the Internet browsing speed. In the previous article of tips and tricks we have already mentioned some tips related to your browser. Here are few more tips, which can further improve the Internet browsing experience. If you’re using Netscape communicator, then click on the edit menu and select preference. This will open the preference window on your computer screen. Now locate the Advanced Tab and click on +sign before it. Now click on cache and then select never option. It is the option written at the end.

Click OK and close all open instances of your browser. Next time when you open the browser, you will find a positive change reflected by faster browsing. You can further enhance the performance of the browser by leaving the option for home page blank. By default this option is set for Netscape or MSN, respectively, for Netscape and the Internet Explorer Internet browsers. For affecting the settings, click again on Edit menu and then select properties. In the Properties window, select blank page for the home page option and then click OK.

However, if you have already incorporated these settings and still want more, then you should try to optimise the Internet connection. This can be done by clicking on the Control Panel> modems. Now right click on the modems icon and select properties. Click on the connection tab and then click on port settings. Under port settings activate ‘Use FIFO’ box and then move both sliders to the right. Now click on OK and reconnect Internet. This will enhance the overall performance.