Q. I receive attachments from family via e-mail and I have been able to download and save them to my computer until this week. Now I can’t.
Once I have downloaded and saved the file to my computer, the next step was to unzip the file. Now when I attempt this I get a message saying Windows has blocked access to these files to protect my computer because they are marked as not trusted.
It tells me to right-click on Properties and to unblock the file. I do this and then start unzipping but the same box pops back up and will not let me proceed any further.
Kyle Einarsson @pacbell.com
A. A lot of times this glitch can be fixed by some hocus-pocus in which you change the name of the Zip folder to something else and then go back and change it again.
Here’s the drill: Find the zipped folder Windows has blocked and give it a right-click. Select Rename and then delete the ending of “.zip” on the folder icon. You will get a warning that this can cause trouble, but you’ve already got trouble, right, Mr. E?
After you click OK, the icon will change to a generic display that no longer shows the yellow folder with a zipper down the side. Now go back and right-click again and rename the folder with the “.zip” at the end. The icon will revert to the yellow folder with a zipper. This also forces Windows to rewrite the attributes of the file and often unblocks content.
Should the problem continue, I’d recommend acquiring one of the many freeware zip-type compression programs such as ZipGenius (www.zipgenius.it), which is perhaps the most popular free alternative to Windows’ built-in Zip software. ZipGenius goes beyond Windows to include compressing and decompressing dozens of formats like LHZ, TAR and CAB.
When you run the installer for ZipGenius, it will add a tool to the other Windows commands so that you can right-click folders and pick “Extract Here” to decompress them without fretting about the blocking issue.
Q. I need help getting my new Apple G5 iMac with OS X 10.4 to edit movies using the Windows WMV format. I have no problem opening a WMV file.
Unfortunately, the file cannot be altered, changed or morphed into a format my machine will accept in QuickTime, iMovie, iDVD or iPhoto.
I’ve searched Apple’s knowledge base, forums, posed questions therein, and talked to local gurus, with no answers. Do you know of any software that might handle the chore?
Carl Taute @mac.com
A. As you have learned the hard way, Mr. T., for more than two decades Mac owners haven’t been able to work with Windows video files and Windows owners haven’t been able to work with Apple’s proprietary QuickTime files.
There are software fixes for this, but let me add that the easiest way for Mac owners to use Microsoft Windows Media Video (WMV) files is to find a computer running Windows XP. Then use the built-in Windows Movie Maker software to save the file in the DV-AVI format, which Macs can use.
These files can be loaded into QuickTime on a Mac and converted to many different formats, starting with Apple’s own MOV for iMovie, iDVD and other stuff built in to Mac OS X.
Also, as Windows and Mac users turn more and more to Web-based video-sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video, there is interest in a conversion program called Flip4Mac from Telestream Inc.
This $29 software package runs on a Mac and will import WMV files and then act as a plug-in for iMovie and other Apple programs to save them in MOV or DV formats. A companion program, the $49 WMV Studio Pro, drops the other shoe by allowing folks with Macs to create movies that can be saved in the WMV format.
Q. I recently bought a new computer with Windows XP and I want to set up the hard drive from my old Windows 98 machine to work as a slave drive on the new computer. I cannot get the computer to see the drive after I connect the cables.
Does the slave hard drive use the middle connector on the ribbon or the end connector?
Am I asking for the impossible?
J.P. Henson @aol.com
A. Is it impossible to hook up that old hard drive to work as an auxiliary storage drive on a new computer? Not exactly, J.P., but it’s cheaper and better for one’s mental health to buy a box to handle this stuff for you.
There are expensive technicians who could work wonders with that old Windows 98 hard drive by changing some hardware devices called DIP switches and by rewriting key software settings on the new computer called BIOS (basic input output system). It is these BIOS settings and the DIP switch settings rather than that ribbon cable that you mention that lets older equipment operate as auxiliary (or slave) drives to the main drive on a Windows computer.
The easier fix is a device known as an external hard-drive enclosure. These metal boxes come with built-in driver software for the Windows XP Plug-and-Play standard and their own power supply. You plug the old hard drive into the enclosure with supplied cables and then connect the enclosure to the Windows XP computer using a USB connection.
These enclosures cost in the $30 to $50 range and are easier to work with than trying to wire a hard drive and install it inside the case of a new PC. Go to Amazon.com or TigerDirect.com and use the expression “external drive enclosure” as a search term.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at jcoates@tribune.com or via snail mail at the Chicago Tribune, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/askjim.
