Awhile back I lost the Search icon under the Windows XP Start menu. I would like to know how to go about getting this icon back in the menu.
A. There is a little-known tool for administrators in Windows XP that can create all kinds of mischief, including removing familiar icons from a computer user’s view. This tool is designed for administrators of business computer networks or eagle-eyed small-business owners to keep employees from doing things that the management doesn’t want to permit.
These alterations to withhold the features available for users are made through a Group Policy Edit control panel that doesn’t appear among the control panels on most PCs.
To find this potentially dangerous tool and restore your Search bar, click on Start and then select Run. Now type in “gpedit.msc” and click OK.
That brings up a box with a list of commands on the left and specific implementation of each command on the right. Go to the bottom of the left display until you reach Administrator Components. Open the folder called Start Menu and Taskbar. This gives a long list of specific settings to give or take away, stuff including the clock in the notification bar, the My Music and My Pictures icons under Start, the history list of past documents and the Search command used to find files and folders. Give this entry a click, and you will find an enable/disable check box.
Q. I read recently that one of your colleagues has 1,000 cookies on his hard drive. Does one ever delete these?
I do this every night by going to Start and then Control Panel and Internet Options. I select Clear History and Delete Files under the General tab, and under the Content tab, under Auto Complete, I clear all Passwords and Forms. But once a company online “tags” me, does it always have my computer? Will my deletion of cookies spare me?
A. You needn’t fear browser meltdown if you click on that delete-all-cookies button under Tools/Options in your browser. But the downside is that clearing away all cookies can make using many resources much more inconvenient, because you will lose all of your personal settings at frequently visited sites.
When cookies are purged, you probably will get tired of having to re-enter information and waiting for files to download. And, while you’re doing that, new cookies are added.
When you go to a cookie’s website, that site can read it, but if you don’t visit that site, there is no way its operators can get permission to upload or download anything on your computer.
The real vulnerability is that outsiders might get hold of your cookies and use them against you, but most cookie writers use encryption to deflect such spying.
To see your cookies, right-click on Start and then select Explore. You will see an icon called Cookies under the Owner folder in the file finder this summons. Open Cookies, read them and maybe you will weep for joy seeing that they hold encrypted gibberish rather than readable information about you.
