Which Programs Should I Let Access the Internet?

I use Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm firewall software to protect my system from Net intruders. Sometimes ZoneAlarm asks me if a particular program should be given access to the Internet. How do I decide whether I should grant such access to a program that I've never heard of?

John Piering, Marietta, Georgia

When your firewall asks if a program you're not familiar with should be allowed access to the Internet, just say no. But before you click that No button, make sure you have not checked the option to remember the answer--for the time being, you want to be notified each time the program tries to get through.

If it turns out that declining to grant the access request prevents you from doing something you want to do, give the mystery program access. If not, you can instruct your firewall to remember your "no" answer so it will stop asking.

Search for the program's name on the Web. If something unsavory is going on, there's a good chance that someone has posted a message about it.

One program you're likely to receive alerts about is Svchost.exe, also known as the generic host process. It's a standard part of Windows 2000 and XP, but it's not a program users generally have to worry about or to interact with directly--other programs use svchost to carry out specific tasks, such as accessing the Internet. If svchost can't access the Net, neither can Internet Explorer. Granting such access to svchost is probably safe, although I can't give you a 100 percent guarantee.

Svchost runs processes that other programs give it, and figuring out what those other programs are is nearly impossible. If a new program uses svchost to access the Internet, your firewall should ask if the program is okay, without mentioning svchost. But if a Trojan horse program replaces an existing program or.dll file that accesses svchost, it could gain Net access without getting caught. I've never heard of this happening, but it could.

Is there a defense? Fortunately, yes. Some firewalls, including ZoneAlarm Pro 3, come with component controls. If a change occurs in a program to which you've granted permission--or to a.dll or other component of that program--the firewall will alert you the next time that program tries to access the Internet. If ZoneAlarm tells you that a program has changed (see FIGURE 1), and you haven't updated the program recently, click No.

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Enable Hibernation

I've heard that hibernation is a great way to reduce the amount of energy my PC uses when it's on but idle. How do I make my computer hibernate?

David Woodard, Dorchester, Wisconsin

Hibernation is a cool feature--if your PC supports it. This state differs from sleep or standby mode in that it copies everything in RAM to your hard drive and then completely shuts down your computer so that it uses little or no electricity (modern PCs keep a small trickle going via the front power switch, even when shut off). When you switch it back on, it copies everything back into RAM so you can swiftly return to where you left off.

Not all computers support hibernation. Some can't wake up from it; others seem to wake up completely, but certain peripherals fail to reactivate when the PC does. (On the other hand, many computers will hibernate and wake up just fine.) If you encounter trouble of this sort, try updating the hardware's drivers.

To enable hibernation, first select Start, Settings, Control Panel. (In Windows XP, select Start, Control Panel; if you see Switch to Classic View at the top of the Explorer bar, click it.) Next, double-click the Power Options icon. In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Hibernate tab. (If there is no Hibernate tab, your system doesn't support hibernation.) Check Enable hibernation or Enable hibernate support, depending on the version of Windows you're using, and click OK.

Once you've enabled hibernation, you can make your computer hibernate via its shutdown options. In Windows 98, Me, or 2000, select Start, Shut Down. Choose Hibernate and then click OK. In Windows XP, select Start, Turn Off Computer. While the 'Turn off computer' dialog box is open, either hold down the Shift key to see the Hibernate button or just press H.

Want an even easier way to make your system hibernate? Return to the Power Options Properties dialog box and click the Advanced tab. In either the 'When I press the power button on my computer' or 'When I press the sleep button on my computer' drop-down menus, select the Hibernate option and click OK.

Restore File Associations

My PC has been hijacked by a program that associated itself with more than half the file types on my system. Uninstalling the malefactor didn't help. Is there a way out of this dilemma?

Steven Gerner, Chandler, Arizona

That depends on how well prepared you are. I'll offer some fixes in case you're not protected, and tell you how to prepare for the next time this happens.

You can restore individual associations pretty easily from the Open With dialog box. To get there in Windows XP, right-click a file of the associated type and select Properties, click the Change button across from 'Opens with', and then, if necessary, choose Select the program from a list. In Windows 98, Me, or 2000, Shift-right-click a file of the associated type and then select Open With (or Open With, Choose Program). Once there, select the program you want that file type to be associated with, check Always use this program to open this kind of file, and click OK.

You can restore all of your associations at one time by using a backup of the Windows Registry--though this will affect more than your associations. Just in case you haven't made a backup, Windows automatically backs up your Registry at regular intervals. For instructions on restoring your Registry, see Kirk Steers's "Fix PC Woes by Going Back in Time." Kirk's instructions for Windows Me apply to Windows XP as well.

In any case, it's best to make a separate backup of all your associations before disaster strikes. To do this, select Start, Run, type regedit, and press Enter. Navigate the Registry Editor's left pane to My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes. Choose Registry, Export Registry File ( File, Export in Windows XP). Name the file associations, and save it to My Documents.

If a program should happen to claim the wrong associations, simply open My Documents, double-click the associations file, and click Yes. Your associations will return to their earlier state as of the backup. Best of all, only file types that were associated with something at the time of the backup will be affected. If you've added a new file type and association since the backup, they won't change.

Compress Old Files

Windows XP's Disk Cleanup utility tells me that I can regain more than 1.5GB of space by selecting 'Compress old files.' Will I regret doing this?

Scott Ferguson, Indianapolis

This feature is available in Windows 2000 and XP, but exclusively on NTFS-formatted drives. To find it in XP, select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup in Windows 2000). It compresses files older than 50 days. If you need the extra disk space, compressing old files is a good idea.

The compressed files are still accessible--Windows decompresses them on the fly when you open them--but they may take a little longer to open. You can tell a file is compressed because its file name is blue in Windows Explorer.

Is compressing files safe? The technology has been around for about a decade now, and it's well supported by utilities, so yes, it's probably safe.

Whenever you want to return a compressed file to its uncompressed state, right-click it and select Properties. Click the Advanced button, uncheck Compress contents to save disk space, and click OK.

Clean Up Pasted Text

When I paste text from Outlook Express into Microsoft Word, I often get symbols that look like little bent arrows at the end of lines or paragraphs. How do I get rid of them?

Richard G. Schultz, Marietta, Georgia

I'll never cease to be amazed by the many little incompatibilities that crop up between different Microsoft applications.

Word calls those bent arrow thingies "manual line breaks." They mean "End this line here, but don't consider the next line a new paragraph."

If you want to replace them all with real returns, press Ctrl- H to bring up Word's Find and Replace dialog box. In the 'Find what' field, enter ^l (that's a caret followed by a lowercase L, Word's search code for manual line breaks). In the 'Replace with' field, enter ^p (Word's search code for hard returns). Click Replace All.

You may also get manual line breaks at the end of each line, and two breaks at the end of each paragraph. In that case, do two searches. First, replace ^l^l with ^p (see FIGURE 2). Next, replace ^l with a space. For more on cleaning up pasted text, see " Paste Minus Formatting".

Paste Minus Formatting

If you're tired of changing the fonts and indentation of text you're pasting, there's an easy solution--and it costs only $5. Clip Strip, a shareware program by Innovative Software Creations, easily removes all formatting from whatever text is in the Clipboard. All you do is copy your formatted text, click the Clip Strip icon (I keep mine in my Quick Launch toolbar), and then paste the plain text. Go to PC World's downloads to get a trial version of the program.