Q. I am running Windows XP and use Microsoft Outlook for e-mail. My problem is that when I receive messages that include photos and other graphics, a box with a red X in the upper-left corner is all that appears. Is there a way to view what photo should be appearing where the red X appears by adjusting a setting?
— Wayne Wolf @earthlink.net
A. I’ve been getting a large number of questions from folks unhappy about red X’s rather than actual images when opening messages, and there are different answers for the issue with Microsoft Outlook and with the trimmed-down Outlook Express e-mail software.
First, Outlook proper:
It’s easy to convert those empty boxes into proper graphics on a case-by-case basis. Or you can reset Outlook to blithely accept pictures and animations and heaven knows what else might be embedded in e-mails from heaven knows whom, Mr. W.
The choice is yours, but I suspect you can spot my bias about promiscuous downloading.
To order the display of graphical elements that are withheld for security considerations, you need to move the mouse arrow onto one of those red X boxes and press down the right button of your mouse. This brings a pop-up menu that includes a command to download those images from the server where the message is sitting.
Outlook can be adjusted to automatically download graphics, along with the rest of e-mail messages, and it also can be set to accept image downloads in messages from trusted sources or other fine-tuning.
Click on Tools and Options in Outlook, then click the Security tab and then open the Change Automatic Download Settings bar. I should add that blocking automatic downloads substantially speeds up e-mail receiving time as well as providing security.
Users of Outlook Express and many other e-mail programs can set or remove this same downloading feature by using commands built in to Microsoft Internet Explorer to enhance security. Open Internet Explorer and click Tools and Options there. Next, open the Advanced tab and scroll down most of the way to the bottom, where you will find a check box to toggle automatic downloading of images.
Q. We have a lot of e-mail saved on our computer in our AOL 9.0 account. We want to unload that e-mail to a file so we can access it after we stop subscribing to AOL. Can you suggest a technique or product that will enable us to do that?
— Jim Inns @theinsgroup.com
A. Let me describe software called eMail2Pop from PorkChup Solutions Inc. (www.email2pop.com) as the $25 solution to this problem you share with a good number of folks, Mr. I.
The software consists of a Wizard that asks for your AOL screen name and password and then alters other e-mail software like Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora to receive e-mails from your AOL account and also to send messages using that account. It is possible to view this as a way to facilitate bailing out of AOL or as a reason to keep one’s account at the world’s largest Internet service provider.
PopChup’s product acts as a link between AOL and Outlook, Eudora, et al, to access e-mail by creating an account in other e-mail software for AOL messages. Until January, the software was named AOL2POP, but the company changed the name as part of plans to translate messages from other sources, perhaps Yahoo and growing hordes of players that offer Web-based e-mail.
I’ll leave the ethics of this to you, Mr. I., but I can tell you that when I tested the software I was able to use a 14-day trial period to quickly download the more than 200 messages in my own AOL account without paying a cent. If you just want to bridge things between dropping AOL and going elsewhere, that’s all you would really need. A single use during the evaluation period would fix you up without paying your benefactor a cent.
But let me suggest that you and many other AOL users might rethink dropping their accounts by adopting the superior Outlook-type programs for sending and receiving e-mail messages and keeping the wealth of content that also comes with an AOL account.
Let’s face it, none of AOL’s competitors hold a candle to the rich resources, including the gigantic offerings of the Time Warner media empire and AOL’s own services developed over 20 years.
Q. My System Restore feature doesn’t work, and I also cannot figure out why I’m unable to get my computer to recognize a new hard drive I installed. There are no restore points when I call up System Restore, and the computer will not allow me to create any. It keeps telling me I have to restart my computer, but that doesn’t help.
Also, I just cannot get Windows to see a new hard drive that I added to my Windows ME machine. The problem is that no matter what I do, Windows doesn’t see this new drive, even though I attached it to the proper data cables and power line.
I have my main hard drive set as my primary master, a CD-ROM as the primary slave, and I have tried using the new drive as a secondary master or slave. Even going to the MS-DOS prompt doesn’t show me the new drive.
— Gus Hartmann, Ottawa
A. The System Restore issue is simple to fix, Mr. H., but I fear that you’re going to need to do some fairly heavy lifting to resolve that hard-drive recognition problem.
First, System Restore:
In Windows XP, all you need to do is right-click on the My Computer icon, pick Properties and click on a tab called System Restore that pops up with a command to toggle the feature.
In Windows ME, however, after you follow the steps for XP, you need to click on a tab for Performance. Then, under Performance, you need to click on Troubleshooting, where you will find the command to enable and disable System Restore.
Now, that second issue:
Your hard-drive problem almost certainly stems from your failure to find and properly set some tiny switches called DIP switches or jumpers that are part of the hardware on a hard drive.
If you look in the documents that came with the drive or go to the maker’s Web site, you will see that these tiny switches must be placed in one arrangement if a drive is to be a master (or primary device) and a different configuration if it’s to be a slave (or secondary).
The good news is that once you find the proper lineup for the switches, you can easily set them as needed with a small screwdriver or a pair of tweezers.
If I might get up on a soap box, you are among uncounted thousands of folks who read an advertisement or the promises on a box in the computer store that makes adding new hardware to a PC a simple exercise in “plug and play.”
Actually, any tinkering inside the box can lead to complexities that challenge pros, let alone us hobbyists. Hard drive-makers are particularly difficult, because these devices quite often require complex jumper changes that aren’t mentioned on the box or in the ads.
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Have a question for Jim Coates on small-business technology? Send an e-mail to askjimbiz @tribune.com or via snail mail at the Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column.
