Where Should I Delete Private Information?
I regularly empty the folders holding my cookies and temporary Internet files. What other folders should I clean out to protect my privacy?
Barbara Pecan, Clearwater, Florida
It's easy to cover your cybertracks via the Paranoia tab of Tweak UI 1.33, Microsoft's free Windows add-on. to download the program. (PowerToys for Windows XP's version of Tweak UI lacks this tab, but the tab in Tweak UI 1.33 works fine in XP. The two versions of Tweak UI can coexist on an XP-based system, as long as you don't try to use them at the same time.)
After you download Tweak UI 1.33, double-click it to extract the compressed files, right-click the tweakui.inf file (the icon for this file looks like a notepad with a cog wheel in front of it), and choose Install. Once you've installed Tweak UI, open Control Panel, double-click the Tweak UI icon, and click the Paranoia tab.
You'll find a number of options in the 'Covering your tracks' list. If you check any of these items and click OK, Windows will clear them each time you boot. Not all are worth selecting, however. Here are the key options to enable:
Document history: This is the list of recently opened documents you get by selecting Start, Documents (or in XP, Start, Recent Documents).
Internet Explorer history: This clears visited links and the drop-down list of recently visited URLs in IE's Address Bar toolbar. It does not reliably clear the browser's history list; to empty that, select IE's Tools, Internet Options, click the General tab, and select Clear History.
Run history: This option removes the list of commands that you typed in the Start, Run dialog box.
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Making Euros
How can I assign the euro symbol to my keyboard other than by holding down Alt as I type 0128 on the numeric keypad?
Bob Hertzka, New York
I'll show you two ways to type easy euros. Note, however, that not all fonts support the euro symbol. If you have Windows set to use the United States-International keyboard layout, you can make a euro by pressing Ctrl- Alt-5 (use the 5 on your keyboard's number row, not the one on the numeric keypad).
To switch to this layout in Windows XP, begin by selecting Start, Control Panel. If the Control Panel window says 'Pick a category', click Switch to Classic View. Double-click Regional and Language Options (or select it from the Control Panel menu), click the Languages tab, choose Details, and click Add. Finally, in the Keyboard layout/IME drop-down list, select United States-International (see FIGURE 1).
In Win 98, 2000, and Me, select Start, Settings, Control Panel. Double-click Keyboard, click the Language tab (that's Input Locales in Windows 2000), and select Properties. In the Keyboard layout drop-down list, select United States-International.
The second option works only in Office applications, but doesn't involve changing keyboard settings. In Word or Excel, select Tools, AutoCorrect or Tools, AutoCorrect Options, depending on your version of Office. In the Replace field, enter a symbol, such as a tilde (~) or pipe (|), that you rarely use. In the With field, hold down Alt while you type 0128 on the numeric keypad (with NumLock on, of course). Release the Alt key and click OK.
Now you can enter a euro symbol in your Office apps by pressing your chosen key. To type the original character instead of the euro symbol, press the key and then Backspace.
Easy Word Virus Safety
Ronald Goers of Palmyra, New York, offers a simple way to protect your system from Word macro viruses: Microsoft's free Word 97/2000 Viewer (which also reads Word 2002 files) displays the documents but can't run macros. If you make the viewer your default program for loading.doc files, selecting a Word file e-mail attachment will open it harmlessly in the viewer. You can still load any document into Word by right-clicking it and selecting Open.