From time to time I get e-mail in the file format MIME. My XP Pro under Windows and MSN Mail can’t handle it, so I have to delete the message. All I get is lots of ABCs that make no sense. These e-mails come from friends and probably hold some interesting info.
A. Multipurpose Internet mail extensions, or MIME files, date from the dawn of the Web and now are outdated but still used by quite a few diehards who cause a lot of consternation, as you can testify.
In essence, a MIME file is written in conventional text (A to Z and 0 to 9) rather than the gibberish of special binary code used by modern file types. At the start of things, computers could transmit only traditional alphabet characters rather than the complex symbols now used to designate data in binary files for pictures, sound and nearly everything else. MIME was developed to translate such things as photos and sounds and movies into simple text at one end that could be translated back into their graphic splendor at the other end.
Every day uncounted thousands of MIME files get rejected by Windows users because their e-mail software can’t handle the format.
The fix that I prefer is to download a trial copy of WinZip, a powerful archiving utility that creates Zip and a bunch of other compressed files (www.winzip.com). When you run the WinZip setup program, it will recognize MIME files by their extension of .mim and give them an icon showing a big blue C-clamp. When you click such an icon, the software will walk you through extracting whatever songs, photos, movies or whatever your friends are sending your way.
Q. I am moderately computer literate, and I try to keep my 85-year-old Web-surfing mom’s computer up to speed. Occasionally she clicks something she should not, but I can usually troubleshoot it. I keep her machine clean with Zone Alarm, AVG Anti-Virus, Ad-Aware, Spybot and SpywareBlaster. Seems like a fairly comprehensive protection system to me. So why have all her Desktop icons gone away, and why can’t I get them back? Is it a worm? A virus? Mom? I tried Explore, Copy, Create Shortcut and My Computer/Control Panel/Display, all to no avail. Help!
A. The fix is far easier than any of those things you tried, and I won’t tell your mom if you don’t. There is a little-known command on the task bar at the bottom of the Windows display that makes icons disappear (and reappear) on the desktop screen. Find an empty spot on the taskbar and give a right-click.
This brings up a menu with maybe a dozen options. You will find one that says Show the Desktop. Click it once and the Recycle Bin, My Computer, My Documents and all the rest of the icons disappear. Click again and they will come back.
