Hello everyone

Happy belated Easter Holiday everyone and welcome to another edition of the newsletter. I am running a few days behind... "as usual" I guess, but this will be an informative letter, and you may find it helpful in a lot of ways... especially the Windows XP users among you.

Didn't someone say you couldn't crash Windows XP? Yeah right... I managed to crash it in less than 5 days trying to change the logon screens and couldn't even bring it up in Safe Mode anymore. So I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP... fun, fun! A few days later I found myself re-installing Win XP again (this time over the last install trying to avoid another reformat of the hard drive) because I have managed to loose the use of my Outlook Express 6 for no apparent reason. I still have not been able to get it working again! So far I am not very impressed with XP at all, but it is giving me an opportunity to learn about it and that aspect of it most certainly can't hurt. *smile*

Site Updates:

I have added 3 new sections to the Wallpaper, consisting of Animals (containing 14 wallpapers of various animals like african wildlife, butterflies, cats, and birds, all done in water color and/or oil painting style), Fractals 1 and Fractals 2 containing each an additional 16 wallpaper. All wallpaper are for both 800x600 and 1024x768 screen sizes (unless otherwise noted) and high color of at least 24-bit color settings.

The adult screensaver section finally received a saver geared for the ladies (or anyone else who may have an appreciation for the male body), called Hotties. This screensaver displays 32 slides of a variety of Males (hot, hot, hot *smile*) with special display effects and midi for background music. This screensaver can be adjusted to the speed of display, mute/shuffle the sounds, and/or adjust the special display effects.

Hotmail, Yahoo, Excite, and/or various other web based email account users are unable to see this newsletter as it is intended. For Hotmail users who also use Outlook Express 5.x and above there is a fix for this dilemma. If you set up your Outlook Express to check your Hotmail account mail, you can send and receive stationery type emails without a problem. For detailed instructions click here

Adorable Teddies in Print are on sale for US$ 10.- each! These poster prints are hand signed & numbered, varying in size from 15½x11¾ inches to 17½x12 inches and come on high-quality cardboard weight, acid-free paper. For a matching screensaver see Bear Living

Past Lives Revealed website offers original Inspirational & Angel Stationery for Outlook and/or Outlook Express users, free original Inspirational Greeting Cards, Mystical Desktop Themes & Wallpaper, Various Readings (Palms, Clairvoyant, Dreams, Past Lives, Missing Items/People, Tarot, Herbalists, and many more) or visit the website's own Chatroom.

The Gifts:

Some changes have been been made to the Stationery install directories. Choose a file to download and make sure to read the enclosed text files for install/uninstall directions and/or other important information. All graphics are best viewed in high color of at least 16--bit or higher (True Color). All images for Stationery, Wallpaper, Screensaver, Skins or Puzzles are original creations made with PSP 7 (tubes & filters for effects), watermarked and copyright © 2002.

* PLEASE NOTE: Gifts are only for actual subscribers (available for 5-7 days with each issue) and not for visitors to the newsletter archive at the website.

*** NOTE*   I use Zip Magic to compress Stationery and/or Desktop Theme files into EXE format. If you ever get a password prompt during installation... ignore it and proceed. They are not password protected! For more help with installation(s) visit the Help section at either Stationery, Theme Help, and the Hotbar Skin Tutorial sections.

*** PLEASE READ IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT LINKS ***

Various Software & Tutorials:

The following are various programs for people who are interested in making a homepage, play with graphics or want to get some more training in using a computer and/or software:

• The HyperText Studio 4.0 is a great WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Web site authoring tool that lets you not only create websites, but also Windows Help files with ease. This software comes with many built-in Editors like HTML Code, Frame, ImageMap, and Cascading Style Sheet. Integrated site management and the editor features make creating your content as simple as drag and drop, and link management has never been easier. You can use Topic Styles for consistency, and the built-in tutorials help you learn quickly. The best feature is probably that you can also work with several people over different computers (and distance) on the same web site project. Great software! *smile*

• Crystal 3-D Impact Pro (Demo) is a great software if you would like to make your own 3-D or 2-D pictures, logos, banners, or even animated banners or email logos. This software comes full with pre-sets, includes templates, bevels (this is the extrusion for the letters), motions (for your animations), materials and much more. You can also use this software to import flat art work from other software (Adobe Illustrator or Corell) and turn them into 3-d images. Impact Pro is very easy to use with its Wizards and click & choose interface. Your end picture and/or animation can then be used for web pages, or for MS PowerPoint Presentations along with their PowerPlugs.

• Artistscope Secure Image 2.2 is Freeware (Windows and Mac users) that offers a secure way to display your images on the web by locking them to your domain, folder, and/or web address. This way your images cannot be copied, linked to or displayed by someone else's website, even if it is framed. All you have to do is register before you download the software and enjoy peace of mind. *smile*

• Pixia 2.4 is a very nice and easy to use Freeware Painting software, available in English, Chinese, French, Hungarian and of course Japanese (original version). Pixia, just like other expensive software lets you work in layers, has many different built in brushes, and effects as well. Make sure to check out the Gallery to see what others have accomplished with this software, and of course the Tutorial section.

• For all who always wanted to know about all these computer and/or Internet terms, you might find this free reference book called Internet & Computer Terms in PDF format (you will need the free Adobe Acrabat Reader) helpful. Make sure to also check out the 200 Cool Websites (links pages), Computer Tips & Tricks and the Easter Eggs (not what you think they are *smile*) section.

• Computer Education, Training, and Tutorial Resources website is chock full with links to free e-books, tutorials, free University courses, some software, etc., all computer and software related. This site may also come handy if you are in College and need to find some information on courses and/or tests and quizzes that are computer related.

Various Sites and Software for Windows users:

I thought it might be helpful to direct you to some sites dealing exclusively with Windows XP (sites for all other Window users in the bottom half). Please be advised that if you make any changes and/or install anything on your Windows XP system that you are doing this at your own risk! These sites and their content are only offered as suggestions of what you could do with or on your XP system. Please do not email me with problems you are experiencing after taking the advise or installation of software found on the following websites!!

• BLINK Windows XP is probably one of the most extensive websites dealing with Windows XP. This site offers anything from current news, a bulletin board, a newsletter, tips & tricks, and many many links to other useful websites as well. This site also offers links to software to change your Boot Screens as well as sites that offer Boot Screens and Desktop Themes specific to Windows XP.

On the note of Desktop Themes and/or Boot Screens for Windows XP, be very careful with these files, this is how I crashed my XP. Themes and especially Boot Screens (known as Logo Sys files in other Window versions) are not handled in the same manner as they use to in previous Windows versions. However, the Desktop themes offered from my website still work in XP (except for the enclosed logo sys files), but you have to create a folder in C:\Program Files called Plus! and inside that, one called Themes and use the Desktop Themes 1.89 (Shareware but fully functional without limits to install and uninstall themes and works on XP as well) software to run them. I will probably append the current Theme Tutorial with an update for XP users, so please be patient. *smile*

• PowerToys for WinXP is really several small applications in one package that includes among others TweakUI, PowerToy Calculator, Slide Show Wizard, and Timer Shot. TweakUI lets you tweak certain settings on your computer and is pretty much safe to use for anyone, even beginners. You can choose how to create shortcuts on your computer (with or without the word "shortcut" in front of it), select which software starts when Windows starts, repair icons (also other items), select what features you want in your start menu, and much more. The Slide Show Wizard creates a slideshow of your digital images on your computer that you can then upload to your web site, and the Calculator includes many other options than the calculator included with Windows. The download link provided above is from File Mirrors and the Microsoft site claims to offer this software again with some improvements sometime later this month.

• Tweaking Windows XP Part 1 and Part 2 is a step-by-step guide (pictures are included) of what you can change in Windows XP. You can also find links to software, and other articles at this website like a Bios Guide, Networking Guide, Reviews of Hardware and much more.

• Windows Pro XP is another website dedicated to Windows XP. Here you will find information topics such as XP How To's, Pros & Cons of XP Pro or Home Edition, Service Packs, Future of XP, FAQ (Frequently Ask Questions), Office XP Tips, downloads and more. Very informative site, so take your time here as well.

• TweakXP is a site much like the one above... and again proceed with caution when making changes to your system. However this site is very thorough and you will find all sorts of information here, even how to tweak a few other applications like MSN Messenger, ICQ, Kazaa, and many others. Very nice layout here and easy to navigate as well.

• xp-AntiSpy is a small software that lets you disable some built-in update and authentication 'features' in Windows XP. The site is in German but you will see a link at the top for the English version. Make sure to read the explanation of this software and follow instructions.

Ok, here are some sites that offer some information, tutorials and/or software for all other Window users (95/98/ME/200):

• Annoyances.Org is a website that hosts forums for all the different Windows versions from Windows 95 through XP. You can either read the articles written by the website sorted by topics, or search the appropriate Windows forums.

• HomeNetHelp is mostly geared to people who need information on how to Network computers, but is also a good source for other things like articles on how to protect your kids on the Internet, Spyware explained, tutorials, and much more. This website is technical but still written so that the average computer user can learn a lot as well.

• Windows Support Center is also much like the other sites above, but here you can also search for specific Windows error messages, links to other Window support sites, an easy to search Knowledge Base, Registry Patches, a FAQ and Articles section and some Freeware software. Site is well written, easy to navigate and understand.

• NT Compatible website is geared to people who use Windows 2000/Nt/XP and/or NET Server. You will find reviews for hardware, software, a drivers guide, driver updates, compatibility on games and software, security patches and more.

• Start-Up is a website that gives very detailed instructions on what and how you can remove programs from your Start-up (these are programs that load when Windows starts and can potentially slow your system drastically). The instructions given here are very detailed (for all Windows versions) and also includes a list of software and their executable names for easy look-up. This list can also be downloaded in either exe or zip format for later reference.

• Messing with the Registry of your computer is risky business and I would not suggest to anyone who doesn't know anything about it to download and use this software called RegCleaner 3.7 (Freeware). However if you are experienced with making changes to your computer registry manually, then you could really appreciate this utility as it makes that job so much easier. This software lets you change your start-up (enable or disable software), search your registry and the results will be highlighted, creates back-ups of all changed registry keys, and lets you back-up your registry in one easy step.

*** IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT URL's (LINKS), PRIVACY AND/OR MAINTENANCE ***
This Newsletter and/or its Author are not responsible for the Maintenance and/or the Privacy Policies of websites listed within the Newsletter Issue(s)! At the time of publication, all listed URL's (Links) for websites and/or programs are in working condition and are accessible. The sudden unaccessibility of a website and/or program may be due to sudden traffic increase and/or other temporary causes I have no control over. Try the URL (Link) for any given program and/or website again at a later time.    Thank you!

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The Finishing Touches:

Hope you enjoyed this edition of the newsletter, and found lots of useful information. You may share this newsletter with your friends and family or visit the website for the current & all previous Issues: Kenja's Newsletter & Updates

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Copyright © 2002 Kenja's Newsletter & Updates   ISSN: 1530-700X   All Rights Reserved! Content written & edited by A. Way aka Kenja. The opinions expressed herein are my own. The reproduction, direct linking and/or unauthorized use of any part(s) of this Newsletter, it's content, layout and/or graphics is strictly forbidden!