Bullet Points
Auto-response Messages Can Be Evil

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• Making File Extensions Viewable in Properties Box

  For those of you that do not remember the good old DOS days, a file name extension is those three letters that come at the end of a file name, after the period. For example, if the file name is Newsletter.doc, the extension is .doc. Under Windows, the file name extension determines the application that can be used to view/modify the information stored in a file.

  When you right click a file in Windows Explorer and view the General tab in the file's Properties dialog box, by default the file's name (without extension) appears in the text box at the top of the page. However, if you set folder options to display file extensions in Explorer, the extension will also be shown here. To do that:

  1. Right click Start
  2. select Explore to open Windows Explorer
  3. Click Tools
  4. Click Folder Options
  5. Click the View tab
  6. Scroll down to Hide extensions for known file types, which is checked by default, and click to uncheck it
  7. Click OK

  Now the extensions for all files will show up both in the files list in Explorer and in the file's Properties.

  This is VERY important in protecting against viruses. Remember that virus-infected files are usually executable and so have extensions like .EXE, .COM, .BAT Never click attached files that have these file name extensions. If you can't see the extensions, how would you know?

   

• Getting Rid of Secure Mode Warnings in Internet Explorer

  If you are surfing the web and move from a secure web page to a non secure page (or vice versa) annoying warning dialog boxes pop up to let you know. If you want to disable these warnings:

  1. Click Tools
  2. Click Internet Options
  3. Click the Advanced tab,
  4. Scroll down to the Security heading
  5. Uncheck Warn if changing between secure and not secure mode

   

• Save Typing When Entering URL's

  Here's a way to reduce the typing required whne entering URL's that end in .com in Internet Explorer. You can just type the domain name. For example, if the URL is www.microsoft.com, just type "microsoft" and hold down the CTRL key while you press ENTER. This only works on URLs in the .com domain.

   

• Speed Up Display of Icons in My Computer (XP)

  When you open My Computer, by default XP will search for network files and printers. This slows down the display of the icons while the search takes place, especially on a slow machine. You can speed this up by telling XP not to perform this search. Here's how:

  1. Click Start
  2. Click My Computer
  3. Click Tools
  4. Click Folder Options
  5. Click the View tab
  6. Uncheck the checkbox that says Automatically search for network folders and printers
  7. Click OK
  Now when you open My Computer, the icons should display faster.

   

• Putting Pictures on Your Desktop

  You probably know that can put your favorite photos on your desktop by saving them as .bmp files and selecting them as your wallpaper. But how about putting individual photos on the desktop that you can move around to different locations, or remove from the desktop individually? You can even use animated .GIFs, if you like a desktop that's in motion. Just follow these steps:

  1. Right click an empty space on the desktop
  2. Select Properties
  3. Click the Desktop tab,
  4. Click the Customize Desktop button at the bottom.
  5. Click the Web tab.
  6. Click the New button. This starts the New Desktop Item wizard.
  7. Click the Browse button.
  8. Navigate to the picture file that you want to put on the desktop
  9. Click Open
  10. Click OK
  11. Click OK twice more to close the dialog boxes.

  The picture will now appear on your desktop. You can hover over it to cause a frame to appear around it. Grab the top of the frame with your cursor to move the picture to a different part of the desktop. You can lock the items on the desktop so they can't be moved, by checking the Lock desktop items checkbox on the Web tab.

   

• Make file names appear on the left when using DIR Command

  Remember the good old DOS command? (If you don't, you are too young!) In earlier versions of Windows, when you typed the DIR command at the command prompt, file names appeared in the leftmost column. With Windows XP, by default they appear instead in the rightmost column. If you want to change things back to "the way they were," do this:

  1. Right click My Computer
  2. Select Properties
  3. Click the Advanced tab
  4. Click the Environment Variables button.
  5. Click the New button.
  6. Type the following information in the Variable name field: dircmd
  7. Type the following information in the Variable value field: /-n

  Now the file names will be on the left just the way they used to be.

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Many of us use voice mail and have gotten accustomed to changing our greeting, especially if we are going to be away from the office for an extended period of time. This is convenient in that it lets people know why you are not calling them back. You probably also know that you can also do something like this with your email. This feature is called an auto-reply or auto-responder.

It works like this: Everytime somebody sends you an email, your email server automatically sends an email back to the sender with a standard message that you can enter.

Sounds great, right? Well, not always.

Remember the virus that was running around a month or so ago that was sending out email with forged headers (i.e. inserting an innocent party's email address in the "From" field of an infected message)? Many companies are using anti-virus software that blocks viruses at the mail server. If it detects a virus, it sends an email back to the sender telling them that they sent an infected message. Of course if the headers were forged, some poor unsuspecting soul is going to get inundated with these auto-respones and think that their computer is infected. If the virus is running rampant, an enormous amount of email traffic can be generated in this way, bringing down the mail servers of unsuspecting and innocent users. To further complicate matters, imagine that some of the user's who had their email address hijacked were on vacation and had set auto-responders. The auto-responses from the anti-virus software would then receive auto-responses from what appeared to be the sender. This would generate significantly more email load and hasten the demise of mail servers at both ends.

And, yes, even seemingly harmless vacation notices can cause similar problems, albeit on a more limited scale. We manage large email lists for clients. When we send out an email newsletter to 10,000 people, we get back a small flood of useless and unneeded out-of-office or vacation messages. They serve no purpose, and although they can be filtered, these messages still are a waste of time and bandwidth.

Then there's looping: Although some email clients watch for this, it's also possible for two auto-reply robots to enter an endless loop of auto-replies replying to auto-replies!

Part of the problem is the ease with which auto-replies can be set up. In personal email accounts, for example, tools like Outlook's "Out of Office Assistant" make the process seem simple, but also hide the fact that a broad-brush auto-reply is extremely crude and may even be dangerous: Ironically, people who would never consciously reply to spam may set up an out-of-office or other auto-reply message without realizing that these messages will reply to everything that arrives in the mailbox, including spam emails trolling for live addresses.

So What Should Be Done?

The most drastic approach is to reject auto-replies from others, and not to use them yourself. First, set your own email filter ("rules") to discard any auto-reply emails you get. This will not only remove these mostly useless messages from your in-box, but also will help you to avoid any hostile attachments these mails may carry.

To do this, use your email client's filter settings (Microsoft calls them "message rules") to discard or "move to trash" any email with the most-common auto-reply words and phrases. You can sort your own email to see which phrases you most often get, but as a start, try these:

autoreply; auto reply; auto-reply; autoresponse; auto response; auto-response; autorespond; auto respond; auto-respond; out of office; out-of-office; away message; vacation message; I'm away; I'm out on vacation; on holiday

Second, never enable an auto-reply for your personal email. If you feel you must inform people of things like your vacation plans, notify them in advance with a group email. If they know you'll be gone, they won't send you email; or at least they won't expect an immediate reply.

Third, at the server level, use auto-replies sparingly. An "addressee unknown" or "mailbox full" auto-reply provides useful information to the sender, but messages like "virus detected" or "your email has been rejected due to prohibited content" are useless. If you're throwing out an email, just throw it out: No explanation is needed. If the sender is legitimate and the email is important, he or she will follow up and find another way to contact the recipient.

Or, if you feel that silent deletion is too dangerous, consider letting only the intended recipient know that an email wasn't delivered, who sent it, and why it was rejected. Then, if the recipient recognizes the sender, he or she can take steps to ensure re-delivery.

Less-Extreme Options

What if you must use an auto-reply due to business policies or other unavoidable reasons?

In your personal email, set up the auto-reply manually, rather than using the "Out Of Office Assistant" in Outlook, or its equivalent in your email client. By using a manual, custom filter or mail rule to handle your "away" message, you can ensure that it only goes out to those who legitimately might need to know your status.

For example, let's say you work for XYZ Corp. You'd set up the filter or mail rule to first see if the inbound mail is coming from an XYZ domain (e.g., from an "XYZ.com" address), and if it is, only then to reply with your away message. This way, your XYZ co-workers will get your away auto-reply, but spammers and random outside emailers will not.

Another option can help with business email addresses and hybrid personal/business addresses where some form of auto-reply is always necessary or desirable. For example, you may need to let customers know that their email has been received and is being attended to. A good option in this case is to reply using a specific and filterable "From" address, such as NoReply@yourdomain or Mailbot@yourdomain, etc. Then, set your own filters to discard, unread, any mail that comes in to the "NoReply" or "MailBot" address. This way, you can auto-reply to your customers, but not end up with spam or hostile E-mails choking your valid email addresses in return. It also short-circuits any possible looping that might otherwise happen if a customer's email client auto-replies to your auto-reply.

In cases where you can't change the "From" address, use a unique word or phrase in the subject line to take advantage of the fact that many simple "out of office" replies re-quote the original mail's subject line. For example, if you draft your auto reply so it has a subject line something like "XYZ Corp. received your mail," simple autoreplies to your mail will probably have a subject line something like "Re: 'XYZ Corp. received your mail.'" If you create an inbound filter to watch for and delete any E-mails that contain all or part of the phrase "XYZ Corp. received your mail" in the subject line, you can likewise short-circuit mail loops and prevent your auto-responder from replying to someone else's auto-responder.

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